CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvc
Mikael Edebro
Mikael Edebro

Reputation: 241

MVC 3 Regularly re-occurring elements...best practices

On my site i wan't to display a list of categories from a db on almost every page. At the time being i use the ViewBag to store the categories, but I know there must be some better way. Therefore i'm wondering about best practices when loading re-occurring elements in MVC3.

Here's some code:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private AlltForMusikContext db = new AlltForMusikContext();

    //
    // GET: /Admin/

    public ViewResult Index()
    {
        var ads = db.Ads.Include(a => a.Category).OrderByDescending(a => a.Date);
        ViewBag.Categories = db.Categories.ToList();
        return View(ads.ToList());
    }

    public ViewResult Category(int id)
    {
        var ads = db.Ads.Where(a => a.Category.CategoryId == id).OrderByDescending(a => a.Date);
        ViewBag.Categories = db.Categories.ToList();
        ViewBag.Category = db.Categories.Where(a => a.CategoryId == id).FirstOrDefault();
        return View(ads.ToList());
    }
}

I use this code in the _Layout.cshtml

 @Html.Partial("_GetCategories", (IEnumerable<AlltForMusik.Models.Category>)@ViewBag.Categories)

This is my partial view that I load into the layout view:

@model IEnumerable<AlltForMusik.Models.Category>

@foreach (var cat in Model)
{
<img src="@Url.Content("~/Content/img/icon_arrow.gif")" /> 
@Html.ActionLink(cat.CategoryName, "Category", "Home", new { id = cat.CategoryId })<br />
}

This works but I have to load the categories into the ViewBag every time I wanna load a view, othervise I get an error.

What is the best way to load content like this?

Answer:

I followed the advice and used a HtmlHelper. I stumbled upon some problems at first because i hade referenced the HtmlHelper in System.Web.Webpages instead of System.Web.Mvc. Here's the code i'm using:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using AlltForMusik.Models;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace AlltForMusik.Helpers
{
public static class HtmlHelpers
{


    public static string GetCategories(this HtmlHelper helper)
    {
        AlltForMusikContext db = new AlltForMusikContext();
        var categories = db.Categories.OrderBy(a => a.CategoryName).ToList();
        string htmlOutput = "";

        foreach (var item in categories)
        {
            htmlOutput += item.CategoryName + "<br />";
        }

        return htmlOutput.ToString();
    }
}

}

Upvotes: 2

Views: 73

Answers (1)

Ph0en1x
Ph0en1x

Reputation: 10067

Create custom HttpHelper with Caching. for example ShowCategories(). and then just put it on the view or on the common layout like:

@Html.ShowCategories()

Upvotes: 1

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