CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvcasp.net-mvc-3razor
MaxGeek
MaxGeek

Reputation: 1105

Dynamic Navigation from object

I'm working on a ASP.NET MVC3 web application and I want to create a navigation menu that has a sub menu created dynamically from an object. For example I have a Library object/model that contains a list of Books. I want my Navigation to dynamically populate a link to each of those books and display their titles.

Ex:

Home
Book List
 - Book 1
 - Book 2
 - Book 3
About

I have this working by passing the Library object through ViewData from my Controller. My shared _Layout.cshtml page then reads the ViewData and populates the navigation menu. However the downside to this solution is that every method that returns a view in my controllers has to place the Library object into the ViewData. So I'm wondering if there is a better or simpler way to do this?

I'm sure it can be done with jQuery, but maybe you all have a better idea.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1453

Answers (2)

MaxGeek
MaxGeek

Reputation: 1105

The link Erik posted to Phil Haack's blog is the right solution, but it took me a while to figure out what Phil's example was doing. It's a pretty old MVC2 example so here is an example of what my program ended up looking like in case someone has the same question.

Home Controller:

[ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult Menu()
{
Library library = something.getLibrary();

return PartialView("_MenuPartial", library);
}

Shared Partial View _MenuPartial.cshtml:

@model ProjectName.Models.Library

<ul>  
@foreach (var book in @Model.BookList)
{
     <li><a href="#">@book.Title</a></li>
}
</ul>

Shared View _Layout.cshtml:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
   <nav>
   @{Html.RenderAction("Menu","Home");} 
   </nav>
</body>
</html>

Upvotes: 0

Erik Philips
Erik Philips

Reputation: 54636

Take a look at Phil Haacked blog Html.RenderAction and Html.Action. His example is actually a menu that you could easily call from a layout.

Upvotes: 3

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