VirtualPathProvider equivalent in ASP.NET 5/MVC6? - c#

I'm looking at migration strategies for an ASP4/MVC4 application into ASP5/MVC6. Our current implementation relies on loading cshtml views as embedded resources from DLL's, and we use a VirtualPathProvider to find these cshtml files.
Unfortunately, HostingEnvironment.RegisterVirtualPathProvider seems to be gone from MVC6. The closest thing I can find is IEnvironment.WebRootFileProvider, which is an IFileProvider. So I coded up a test class to see if it would work, and unfortunately, the IFileProvider I coded up is never queried for CSHTML files. I get requests for all of the .JS, .CSS, etc files, but no .CSHTML's.
What I'm looking for here is the ability to hook into the razor engine and provide a CSHTML file loaded from an embedded resource (or really, any other source for that matter) when a view is requested. What should I be looking at here?
Thanks!

Alright, I figured it out by digging around in the source code. I can load views from wherever I want by overriding the File Provider on the Razor View Engine options class:
services.AddMvc().AddRazorOptions(x => x.FileProvider = new EmbeddedFileProvider(typeof(Startup).Assembly));
Now the only problem I see is that there appears to be no way to embed resources in an ASP.NET 5 DLL via Visual Studio...

Related

Cannot access to physical HTML file

I'm migrate my old fashion asp.net MVC application to an angular application.
I've created a subset of .html files that contains templates that will provide the HTML code to build my angular components.
Problem
I want to put this html files inside the folder "Views" that already exists on my application. But when I try to access to .html files I receive the following message:
But if I put the .html files outside this folder I can access directly to them:
Questions
Can you tell me why this is happening?
There is anyway that I can access to html files inside the folder "Views"?
To make a long story short, the Views folder is a special folder that holds templates used by actions that are routed by ASP.NET MVC. Because of this, you cannot use it to hold files that are meant to be used directly.
I would suggest ditching the .NET Framework all together since you are going Angular.
If that is not an option or you would like to retain ASP.NET MVC functionality, then simply use another folder (like you have already done by moving the Templates folder to the root).
Try adding an explicit ignore in your RouteConfig
routes.IgnoreRoute("{file}.html");
That should prevent the default routing from taking effect
To make this work, I suggest you take the html markup in your html file and put it on a .cshtml view, that you will render using a GET action in the home controller for instance (as you would normaly do in the MVC pattern).
The other way to achieve this (which I don't recommend), is to add your html file to a deployable folder (like the js folder for javascript files), and than you can call your file using a direct link, however you will lose any capabilities of the MVC pattern this way.
Hope this helps.
As html files are working in views folder, Can you check the path i.e 'Editor/V2/Templates' after 'Views' folder whether it is correct?

Using Same Code in Different Mvc Solutions

I'm using asp.net mvc 3 and .net framework 4.0 with C#
Let's say I have NivoSlider( a slider ) html code. Also it has js, css and image files.
I want to use the NivoSlider cshtml code and js/css/images as "a project" and I want to add it to different MVC solutions. It will become a plugin some-how.
I can't make it a partialview, because I have to move all the css, js and imges files into new solution. I looked at "mvc areas" but it's not rendering my js and css files ( as a matter of fact; using "Areas" is not a perfect way as you know )... I looked up some plugin based architectures, but none-of-them are easy to implement. I have limited time.
So how can I solve this problem ?
EDIT: I can use this http://razorgenerator.codeplex.com/ - But I'm looking for another solutions if you came up with an idea...
You could create a private Nuget and create a small installation for it. That way you can install, update, and uninstall directly from the package.
You can even make a localized package that you copy between computers. Nuget has a very easy way to specify where you want to extract files to, and what files you want to extract.
I'm using razor generator in a commercial project and it's functional but not ideal.
Other possibilities I considered are Add files as link (see Nameless One's answer)
Also overriding the ViewEngine
Can I specify a custom location to "search for views" in ASP.NET MVC?
Or even symbolic links (shortcut links to folders in windows)
https://superuser.com/questions/234422/does-windows7-support-symbolic-links-folder-shortcuts
As recommended above, Razor views can be embedded into assembly as compiled class (by using Razor Generator).
Static resources as .html, .js, .png can be located in the assemble as embedded resource and served by application via VirtualPathProvider (custom or use existing one like https://github.com/mcintyre321/EmbeddedResourceVirtualPathProvider)
Compile your asp.net mvc Razor views into a seperate dll
I wanted to be able to embed compiled Razor views in a dll. This would allow for easy distribution of asp.net mvc ‘modules’ that have their default views embedded, but allowing you to place files in your ‘views’ folder to override those default views.
http://www.chrisvandesteeg.nl/2010/11/22/embedding-pre-compiled-razor-views-in-your-dll/

Load views from location outside the mvc website

I'm trying to load an MVC view form a folder outside the location of the app.
My app is in C:\dev\myproject\ and the view file i'm trying to load is located in D:\viewsfolder\something is it possible to do that?
I tried passing an absolute path to the return View() method but that didn't work.
This is not supported by standard ASP.NET MVC. You may take a look at the RazorEngine plugin which allows you to render a Razor view from a string.
You haven't really explained why you need to do that by the way. Maybe there's a better approach to your particular problem.
The best way to do this is to have your Views Precompiled into a dll which can be used across multiple locations with only one code base.
This can be done using the Razor Generator Plugin which you can find here:
http://razorgenerator.codeplex.com/

Load View from Plugin without Embedding it as Resources in nopCommerce

We're working on a Plugin development where we need to have to override theme view files from within the Plugin. For example, consider a Category Product Listing Page, where instead of theme View file we need to provide its view from within a Plugin view files.
However, this is very limiting, as it works only if we embed the resource while building the Plugin. So that way, it is not possible to customize View File, but we can not embed View file in the Plugin becasue we need that View files can be customized as per custom requirement of the project.. but core Plugin functions remains the same.
So basically need to call the View file in the Plugin without embeding it.
I have viewed few plugins that are doing it this way, but I'm unable to figure out how to do that in my plugin. Any idea how to build plugin this way that allows to change modifications in View files.
Just a note that we're working on nopCommerce 2.65 version.
Have a look at this link: http://coding-in.net/mvc-3-organize-your-partial-views/. Basically you just need to create a custom view engine and tell ASP.Net to find the view in a special path. :)

Move baseclasses for MasterPage from MVC2 to MVC3

I am working on moving an application from MVC2 ASPX to MVC3 Razor, and is quite stuck moving a baseclass for more MasterPages in old MVC2 application.
The baseclass is used for automate include of css and js on pages in order to ease quickfix and debugging when developing application in local environment, but when running application in production environment it has to update and include single minimized css and js files delivered from a external CDN.
The code needs to know about the View file eg. "~/views/home/index.chtml" and/or the Layout file eg. "~/Views/DefaultNoLogon.Master" in order to include and handle css and js files correct.
I tried to implement own baseclass using the pageBaseType in Razor part of web.config, but it seems like it is executed both for View and Layout file, and I could not find a execution point where information about both View and Layout file is present. I also tried to implement the file logic using a HtmlHelper, but I can only access information about the View file and miss information for Layout file for View.
I don't want this kind of code to be implemented in Route, Controller or ViewModel since it should be related directly to generation of Views.
Any ideas how to get information about View and Layout files in MVC3 Razor app?
Well, never mind my question.
I redesigned my logic for automatic rendering of js and css files, which actually is more simple and works better. My Mvc3 Razor app is now capable to take all js and css files for a view (including css and js for all layoutpages) and render them into single minified files.
Works like a charm, and I guess it's more future proof than my old solution, unless Guthrie make fundamental changes in layoutpages and Html helpers in Mvc4 or later.

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