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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T22:04:11+00:00

We’re in the process of transferring a big WebForms app to MVC. In the

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We’re in the process of transferring a big WebForms app to MVC.

In the WebForms app we have some reusable controls (.ascx). For instance, a TextBox that shows username suggestions as you type. The control adds some JS/CSS to the page, has some server-side logic and custom properties (like SelectedUserID).

What should it be in an MVC app? How do I encapsulate those things into one reusable entity in an MVC app? Maybe a partial view? But you can’t add, say, JS/CSS to the page’s <head> from a partial view (preferably, with a check that it’s not already been added)… Also, how do I return something like the mentioned SelectedUserID in a partial view?

To rephrase the question – how would you implement such a control in an MVC app?

PS. I know you can still use .ascx user-controls in MVC apps but it seem a “hacky/legacy” way. What is the “legitimate” option?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The best solution I’ve found so far is Razor declarative helpers. They fit awesomely.

    @helper UserTextBox() {
    <input type="text" />

    <!--my own helper that registers scripts-->
    @Html.AddJS("../js/myscript.js") 
}

    Related question: Razor: Declarative HTML helpers

    Related note: you can’t use @Html helper inside a declarative helper but there’s a workaround: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5557503/56621

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