How to render an ASP NET MVC view as a string

Question

I want to output two different views  one as a string that will be sent as an email   and the other the page displayed to a user   Is this possible in ASP NET MVC beta   I ve tried multiple examples   1  RenderPartial to String in ASP NET MVC Beta     If I use this example  I receive the  Cannot redirect after HTTP   headers have been sent      2  MVC Framework  Capturing the output of a view     If I use this  I seem to be unable to do a redirectToAction  as it   tries to render a view that may not exist  If I do return the view  it   is completely messed up and doesn t look right at all    Does anyone have any ideas solutions to these issues i have  or have any suggestions for better ones   Many thanks   Below is an example  What I m trying to do is create the GetViewForEmail method   public ActionResult OrderResult string ref          Get the order     Order order   OrderService GetOrder ref          The email helper would do the meat and veg by getting the view as a string       Pass the control name  OrderResultEmail  and the model  order      string emailView   GetViewForEmail  OrderResultEmail   order          Email the order out     EmailHelper order  emailView       return View  OrderResult   order       Accepted answer from Tim Scott  changed and formatted a little by me    public virtual string RenderViewToString      ControllerContext controllerContext      string viewPath      string masterPath      ViewDataDictionary viewData      TempDataDictionary tempData        Stream filter   null      ViewPage viewPage   new ViewPage           Right  create our view     viewPage ViewContext   new ViewContext controllerContext  new WebFormView viewPath  masterPath   viewData  tempData          Get the response context  flush it and get the response filter      var response   viewPage ViewContext HttpContext Response      response Flush        var oldFilter   response Filter       try                 Put a new filter into the response         filter   new MemoryStream            response Filter   filter             Now render the view into the memorystream and flush the response         viewPage ViewContext View Render viewPage ViewContext  viewPage ViewContext HttpContext Response Output           response Flush               Now read the rendered view          filter Position   0          var reader   new StreamReader filter  response ContentEncoding           return reader ReadToEnd              finally                 Clean up          if  filter    null                        filter Dispose                         Now replace the response filter         response Filter   oldFilter            Example usage  Assuming a call from the controller to get the order confirmation email  passing the Site Master location   string myString   RenderViewToString this ControllerContext     Views Order OrderResultEmail aspx      Views Shared Site Master   this ViewData  this TempData

User · Accepted Answer

Here s what I came up with  and it s working for me  I added the following method s  to my controller base class   You can always make these static methods somewhere else that accept a controller as a parameter I suppose   MVC2  ascx style  protected string RenderViewToString lt T gt  string viewPath  T model      ViewData Model   model    using  var writer   new StringWriter          var view   new WebFormView ControllerContext  viewPath       var vdd   new ViewDataDictionary lt T gt  model       var viewCxt   new ViewContext ControllerContext  view  vdd                                  new TempDataDictionary    writer       viewCxt View Render viewCxt  writer       return writer ToString            Razor  cshtml style  public string RenderRazorViewToString string viewName  object model      ViewData Model   model    using  var sw   new StringWriter            var viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView ControllerContext                                                               viewName       var viewContext   new ViewContext ControllerContext  viewResult View                                   ViewData  TempData  sw       viewResult View Render viewContext  sw       viewResult ViewEngine ReleaseView ControllerContext  viewResult View       return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString            Edit  added Razor code

User · Answer

This answer is not on my way   This is originally from https   stackoverflow com a 2759898 2318354  but here I have show the way to use it with  Static  Keyword to make it common for all Controllers    For that you have to make static class in class file    Suppose your Class File Name is Utils cs    This example is For Razor   Utils cs  public static class RazorViewToString       public static string RenderRazorViewToString this Controller controller  string viewName  object model                controller ViewData Model   model          using  var sw   new StringWriter                          var viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView controller ControllerContext  viewName               var viewContext   new ViewContext controller ControllerContext  viewResult View  controller ViewData  controller TempData  sw               viewResult View Render viewContext  sw               viewResult ViewEngine ReleaseView controller ControllerContext  viewResult View               return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString                        Now you can call this class from your controller by adding NameSpace in your Controller File as following way by passing  this  as parameter to Controller   string result   RazorViewToString RenderRazorViewToString this   ViewName   model     As suggestion given by  Sergey this extension method can also call from cotroller as given below  string result   this RenderRazorViewToString  ViewName   model     I hope this will be useful to you make code clean and neat

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Additional tip for ASP NET CORE   Interface   public interface IViewRenderer     Task lt string gt  RenderAsync lt TModel gt  Controller controller  string name  TModel model       Implementation   public class ViewRenderer   IViewRenderer     private readonly IRazorViewEngine viewEngine     public ViewRenderer IRazorViewEngine viewEngine    gt  this viewEngine   viewEngine     public async Task lt string gt  RenderAsync lt TModel gt  Controller controller  string name  TModel model          ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult   this viewEngine FindView controller ControllerContext  name  false        if   viewEngineResult Success              throw new InvalidOperationException string Format  Could not find view   0    name               IView view   viewEngineResult View      controller ViewData Model   model       await using var writer   new StringWriter        var viewContext   new ViewContext         controller ControllerContext         view         controller ViewData         controller TempData         writer         new HtmlHelperOptions             await view RenderAsync viewContext           return writer ToString            Registration in Startup cs       services AddSingleton lt IViewRenderer  ViewRenderer gt           And usage in controller   public MyController  Controller     private readonly IViewRenderer renderer    public MyController IViewRendere renderer    gt  this renderer   renderer    public async Task lt IActionResult gt  MyViewTest         var view   await this renderer RenderAsync this   MyView   model       return new OkObjectResult view

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Quick tip  For a strongly typed Model just add it to the ViewData Model property before passing to RenderViewToString  e g  this ViewData Model   new OrderResultEmailViewModel order   string myString   RenderViewToString this ControllerContext     Views Order OrderResultEmail aspx      Views Shared Site Master   this ViewData  this TempData

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Here is a class I wrote to do this for ASP NETCore RC2  I use it so I can generate html email using Razor   using Microsoft AspNetCore Http  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc Abstractions  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ModelBinding  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc Rendering  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ViewEngines  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ViewFeatures  using Microsoft AspNetCore Routing  using System IO  using System Threading Tasks   namespace cloudscribe Web Common Razor            lt summary gt          the goal of this class is to provide an easy way to produce an html string using          Razor templates and models  for use in generating html email           lt  summary gt      public class ViewRenderer               public ViewRenderer              ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine              ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider              IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor                        this viewEngine   viewEngine              this tempDataProvider   tempDataProvider              this contextAccesor   contextAccesor                     private ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine          private ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider          private IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor           public async Task lt string gt  RenderViewAsString lt TModel gt  string viewName  TModel model                         var viewData   new ViewDataDictionary lt TModel gt                           metadataProvider  new EmptyModelMetadataProvider                            modelState  new ModelStateDictionary                                  Model   model                             var actionContext   new ActionContext contextAccesor HttpContext  new RouteData    new ActionDescriptor                 var tempData   new TempDataDictionary contextAccesor HttpContext  tempDataProvider                using  StringWriter output   new StringWriter                                   ViewEngineResult viewResult   viewEngine FindView actionContext  viewName  true                    ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext                      actionContext                      viewResult View                      viewData                      tempData                      output                      new HtmlHelperOptions                                       await viewResult View RenderAsync viewContext                    return output GetStringBuilder   ToString

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I am using MVC 1 0 RTM and none of the above solutions worked for me   But this one did   Public Function RenderView ByVal viewContext As ViewContext  As String      Dim html As String           Dim response As HttpResponse   HttpContext Current Response      Using tempWriter As New System IO StringWriter            Dim privateMethod As MethodInfo   response GetType   GetMethod  SwitchWriter   BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance           Dim currentWriter As Object   privateMethod Invoke response  BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance Or BindingFlags InvokeMethod  Nothing  New Object    tempWriter   Nothing           Try             viewContext View Render viewContext  Nothing              html   tempWriter ToString           Finally             privateMethod Invoke response  BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance Or BindingFlags InvokeMethod  Nothing  New Object    currentWriter   Nothing          End Try      End Using      Return html  End Function

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I saw an implementation for MVC 3 and Razor from another website  it worked for me       public static string RazorRender Controller context  string DefaultAction                string Cache   string Empty          System Text StringBuilder sb   new System Text StringBuilder            System IO TextWriter tw   new System IO StringWriter sb             RazorView view    new RazorView context ControllerContext  DefaultAction  null  false  null           view  Render new ViewContext context ControllerContext  view   new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary    tw   tw            Cache   sb ToString              return Cache               public static string RenderRazorViewToString string viewName  object model                 ViewData Model   model          using  var sw   new StringWriter                          var viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView ControllerContext  viewName               var viewContext   new ViewContext ControllerContext  viewResult View  ViewData  TempData  sw               viewResult View Render viewContext  sw               return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString                          public static class HtmlHelperExtensions               public static string RenderPartialToString ControllerContext context  string partialViewName  ViewDataDictionary viewData  TempDataDictionary tempData                        ViewEngineResult result   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView context  partialViewName                if  result View    null                                StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder                    using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter sb                                         using  HtmlTextWriter output   new HtmlTextWriter sw                                                 ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext context  result View  viewData  tempData  output                           result View Render viewContext  output                                                           return sb ToString                                return String Empty                      More on Razor render- MVC3 View Render to String

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Here is a class I wrote to do this for ASP NETCore RC2  I use it so I can generate html email using Razor   using Microsoft AspNetCore Http  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc Abstractions  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ModelBinding  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc Rendering  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ViewEngines  using Microsoft AspNetCore Mvc ViewFeatures  using Microsoft AspNetCore Routing  using System IO  using System Threading Tasks   namespace cloudscribe Web Common Razor            lt summary gt          the goal of this class is to provide an easy way to produce an html string using          Razor templates and models  for use in generating html email           lt  summary gt      public class ViewRenderer               public ViewRenderer              ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine              ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider              IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor                        this viewEngine   viewEngine              this tempDataProvider   tempDataProvider              this contextAccesor   contextAccesor                     private ICompositeViewEngine viewEngine          private ITempDataProvider tempDataProvider          private IHttpContextAccessor contextAccesor           public async Task lt string gt  RenderViewAsString lt TModel gt  string viewName  TModel model                         var viewData   new ViewDataDictionary lt TModel gt                           metadataProvider  new EmptyModelMetadataProvider                            modelState  new ModelStateDictionary                                  Model   model                             var actionContext   new ActionContext contextAccesor HttpContext  new RouteData    new ActionDescriptor                 var tempData   new TempDataDictionary contextAccesor HttpContext  tempDataProvider                using  StringWriter output   new StringWriter                                   ViewEngineResult viewResult   viewEngine FindView actionContext  viewName  true                    ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext                      actionContext                      viewResult View                      viewData                      tempData                      output                      new HtmlHelperOptions                                       await viewResult View RenderAsync viewContext                    return output GetStringBuilder   ToString

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This works for me   public virtual string RenderView ViewContext viewContext        var response   viewContext HttpContext Response      response Flush        var oldFilter   response Filter      Stream filter   null      try               filter   new MemoryStream            response Filter   filter          viewContext View Render viewContext  viewContext HttpContext Response Output           response Flush            filter Position   0          var reader   new StreamReader filter  response ContentEncoding           return reader ReadToEnd              finally               if  filter    null                        filter Dispose                      response Filter   oldFilter

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This works for me   public virtual string RenderView ViewContext viewContext        var response   viewContext HttpContext Response      response Flush        var oldFilter   response Filter      Stream filter   null      try               filter   new MemoryStream            response Filter   filter          viewContext View Render viewContext  viewContext HttpContext Response Output           response Flush            filter Position   0          var reader   new StreamReader filter  response ContentEncoding           return reader ReadToEnd              finally               if  filter    null                        filter Dispose                      response Filter   oldFilter

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This article describes how to render a View to a string in different scenarios    MVC Controller calling another of its own ActionMethods MVC Controller calling an ActionMethod of another MVC Controller WebAPI Controller calling an ActionMethod of an MVC Controller   The solution code is provided as a class called ViewRenderer  It is part of Rick Stahl s WestwindToolkit at GitHub   Usage  3  - WebAPI example    string html   ViewRenderer RenderView    Areas ReportDetail Views ReportDetail Index cshtml   ReportVM Create id

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I found a better way to render razor view page when I got error with the methods above  this solution for both web form environment and mvc environment  No controller is needed   Here is the code example  in this example I simulated a mvc action with an async http handler            lt summary gt          Enables processing of HTTP Web requests asynchronously by a custom HttpHandler that implements the IHttpHandler interface           lt  summary gt           lt param name  context  gt An HttpContext object that provides references to the intrinsic server objects  lt  param gt           lt returns gt The task to complete the http request  lt  returns gt      protected override async Task ProcessRequestAsync HttpContext context                if  this  view    null                        this OnError context  new FileNotFoundException  Can not find the mvc view file   Localize                  return                    object model   await this LoadModelAsync context           WebPageBase page   WebPageBase CreateInstanceFromVirtualPath this  view VirtualPath           using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter                          page ExecutePageHierarchy new WebPageContext new HttpContextWrapper context   page  model   sw               await context Response Output WriteAsync sw GetStringBuilder   ToString

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This works for me   public virtual string RenderView ViewContext viewContext        var response   viewContext HttpContext Response      response Flush        var oldFilter   response Filter      Stream filter   null      try               filter   new MemoryStream            response Filter   filter          viewContext View Render viewContext  viewContext HttpContext Response Output           response Flush            filter Position   0          var reader   new StreamReader filter  response ContentEncoding           return reader ReadToEnd              finally               if  filter    null                        filter Dispose                      response Filter   oldFilter

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I found a new solution that renders a view to string without having to mess with the Response stream of the current HttpContext  which doesn t allow you to change the response s ContentType or other headers    Basically  all you do is create a fake HttpContext for the view to render itself        lt summary gt Renders a view to string  lt  summary gt  public static string RenderViewToString this Controller controller                                          string viewName  object viewData          Create memory writer     var sb   new StringBuilder        var memWriter   new StringWriter sb          Create fake http context to render the view     var fakeResponse   new HttpResponse memWriter       var fakeContext   new HttpContext HttpContext Current Request  fakeResponse       var fakeControllerContext   new ControllerContext          new HttpContextWrapper fakeContext           controller ControllerContext RouteData          controller ControllerContext Controller        var oldContext   HttpContext Current      HttpContext Current   fakeContext         Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context     var html   new HtmlHelper new ViewContext fakeControllerContext          new FakeView    new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary             new ViewPage         html RenderPartial viewName  viewData          Restore context     HttpContext Current   oldContext             Flush memory and return output     memWriter Flush        return sb ToString            lt summary gt Fake IView implementation used to instantiate an HtmlHelper  lt  summary gt  public class FakeView   IView        region IView Members      public void Render ViewContext viewContext  System IO TextWriter writer            throw new NotImplementedException                endregion     This works on ASP NET MVC 1 0  together with ContentResult  JsonResult  etc   changing Headers on the original HttpResponse doesn t throw the  Server cannot set content type after HTTP headers have been sent  exception    Update  in ASP NET MVC 2 0 RC  the code changes a bit because we have to pass in the StringWriter used to write the view into the ViewContext            Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context var html   new HtmlHelper      new ViewContext fakeControllerContext  new FakeView            new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary    memWriter       new ViewPage     html RenderPartial viewName  viewData

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Additional tip for ASP NET CORE   Interface   public interface IViewRenderer     Task lt string gt  RenderAsync lt TModel gt  Controller controller  string name  TModel model       Implementation   public class ViewRenderer   IViewRenderer     private readonly IRazorViewEngine viewEngine     public ViewRenderer IRazorViewEngine viewEngine    gt  this viewEngine   viewEngine     public async Task lt string gt  RenderAsync lt TModel gt  Controller controller  string name  TModel model          ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult   this viewEngine FindView controller ControllerContext  name  false        if   viewEngineResult Success              throw new InvalidOperationException string Format  Could not find view   0    name               IView view   viewEngineResult View      controller ViewData Model   model       await using var writer   new StringWriter        var viewContext   new ViewContext         controller ControllerContext         view         controller ViewData         controller TempData         writer         new HtmlHelperOptions             await view RenderAsync viewContext           return writer ToString            Registration in Startup cs       services AddSingleton lt IViewRenderer  ViewRenderer gt           And usage in controller   public MyController  Controller     private readonly IViewRenderer renderer    public MyController IViewRendere renderer    gt  this renderer   renderer    public async Task lt IActionResult gt  MyViewTest         var view   await this renderer RenderAsync this   MyView   model       return new OkObjectResult view

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If you want to forgo MVC entirely  thereby avoiding all the HttpContext mess     using RazorEngine  using RazorEngine Templating     For extension methods   string razorText   System IO File ReadAllText razorTemplateFileLocation   string emailBody   Engine Razor RunCompile razorText   templateKey   typeof Model   model     This uses the awesome open source Razor Engine here  https   github com Antaris RazorEngine

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you are get the view in string using this way  protected string RenderPartialViewToString string viewName  object model        if  string IsNullOrEmpty viewName           viewName   ControllerContext RouteData GetRequiredString  action         if  model    null          ViewData Model   model       using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter                  ViewEngineResult viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView ControllerContext  viewName           ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext ControllerContext  viewResult View  ViewData  TempData  sw           viewResult View Render viewContext  sw            return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString              We are call this method in two way   string strView   RenderPartialViewToString    Views Shared  Header cshtml   null    OR  var model   new Person   string strView   RenderPartialViewToString    Views Shared  Header cshtml   model

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I am using MVC 1 0 RTM and none of the above solutions worked for me   But this one did   Public Function RenderView ByVal viewContext As ViewContext  As String      Dim html As String           Dim response As HttpResponse   HttpContext Current Response      Using tempWriter As New System IO StringWriter            Dim privateMethod As MethodInfo   response GetType   GetMethod  SwitchWriter   BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance           Dim currentWriter As Object   privateMethod Invoke response  BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance Or BindingFlags InvokeMethod  Nothing  New Object    tempWriter   Nothing           Try             viewContext View Render viewContext  Nothing              html   tempWriter ToString           Finally             privateMethod Invoke response  BindingFlags NonPublic Or BindingFlags Instance Or BindingFlags InvokeMethod  Nothing  New Object    currentWriter   Nothing          End Try      End Using      Return html  End Function

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Quick tip  For a strongly typed Model just add it to the ViewData Model property before passing to RenderViewToString  e g  this ViewData Model   new OrderResultEmailViewModel order   string myString   RenderViewToString this ControllerContext     Views Order OrderResultEmail aspx      Views Shared Site Master   this ViewData  this TempData

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This answer is not on my way   This is originally from https   stackoverflow com a 2759898 2318354  but here I have show the way to use it with  Static  Keyword to make it common for all Controllers    For that you have to make static class in class file    Suppose your Class File Name is Utils cs    This example is For Razor   Utils cs  public static class RazorViewToString       public static string RenderRazorViewToString this Controller controller  string viewName  object model                controller ViewData Model   model          using  var sw   new StringWriter                          var viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView controller ControllerContext  viewName               var viewContext   new ViewContext controller ControllerContext  viewResult View  controller ViewData  controller TempData  sw               viewResult View Render viewContext  sw               viewResult ViewEngine ReleaseView controller ControllerContext  viewResult View               return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString                        Now you can call this class from your controller by adding NameSpace in your Controller File as following way by passing  this  as parameter to Controller   string result   RazorViewToString RenderRazorViewToString this   ViewName   model     As suggestion given by  Sergey this extension method can also call from cotroller as given below  string result   this RenderRazorViewToString  ViewName   model     I hope this will be useful to you make code clean and neat

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I saw an implementation for MVC 3 and Razor from another website  it worked for me       public static string RazorRender Controller context  string DefaultAction                string Cache   string Empty          System Text StringBuilder sb   new System Text StringBuilder            System IO TextWriter tw   new System IO StringWriter sb             RazorView view    new RazorView context ControllerContext  DefaultAction  null  false  null           view  Render new ViewContext context ControllerContext  view   new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary    tw   tw            Cache   sb ToString              return Cache               public static string RenderRazorViewToString string viewName  object model                 ViewData Model   model          using  var sw   new StringWriter                          var viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView ControllerContext  viewName               var viewContext   new ViewContext ControllerContext  viewResult View  ViewData  TempData  sw               viewResult View Render viewContext  sw               return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString                          public static class HtmlHelperExtensions               public static string RenderPartialToString ControllerContext context  string partialViewName  ViewDataDictionary viewData  TempDataDictionary tempData                        ViewEngineResult result   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView context  partialViewName                if  result View    null                                StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder                    using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter sb                                         using  HtmlTextWriter output   new HtmlTextWriter sw                                                 ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext context  result View  viewData  tempData  output                           result View Render viewContext  output                                                           return sb ToString                                return String Empty                      More on Razor render- MVC3 View Render to String

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I found a new solution that renders a view to string without having to mess with the Response stream of the current HttpContext  which doesn t allow you to change the response s ContentType or other headers    Basically  all you do is create a fake HttpContext for the view to render itself        lt summary gt Renders a view to string  lt  summary gt  public static string RenderViewToString this Controller controller                                          string viewName  object viewData          Create memory writer     var sb   new StringBuilder        var memWriter   new StringWriter sb          Create fake http context to render the view     var fakeResponse   new HttpResponse memWriter       var fakeContext   new HttpContext HttpContext Current Request  fakeResponse       var fakeControllerContext   new ControllerContext          new HttpContextWrapper fakeContext           controller ControllerContext RouteData          controller ControllerContext Controller        var oldContext   HttpContext Current      HttpContext Current   fakeContext         Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context     var html   new HtmlHelper new ViewContext fakeControllerContext          new FakeView    new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary             new ViewPage         html RenderPartial viewName  viewData          Restore context     HttpContext Current   oldContext             Flush memory and return output     memWriter Flush        return sb ToString            lt summary gt Fake IView implementation used to instantiate an HtmlHelper  lt  summary gt  public class FakeView   IView        region IView Members      public void Render ViewContext viewContext  System IO TextWriter writer            throw new NotImplementedException                endregion     This works on ASP NET MVC 1 0  together with ContentResult  JsonResult  etc   changing Headers on the original HttpResponse doesn t throw the  Server cannot set content type after HTTP headers have been sent  exception    Update  in ASP NET MVC 2 0 RC  the code changes a bit because we have to pass in the StringWriter used to write the view into the ViewContext            Use HtmlHelper to render partial view to fake context var html   new HtmlHelper      new ViewContext fakeControllerContext  new FakeView            new ViewDataDictionary    new TempDataDictionary    memWriter       new ViewPage     html RenderPartial viewName  viewData

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To repeat from a more unknown question  take a look at MvcIntegrationTestFramework   It makes saves you writing your own helpers to stream result and is proven to work well enough   I d assume this would be in a test project and as a bonus you would have the other testing capabilities once you ve got this setup   Main bother would probably be sorting out the dependency chain    private static readonly string mvcAppPath         Path GetFullPath AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory                        MyMvcApplication     private readonly AppHost appHost   new AppHost mvcAppPath         Test      public void Root Url Renders Index View                 appHost SimulateBrowsingSession browsingSession   gt                RequestResult result   browsingSession ProcessRequest                  Assert IsTrue result ResponseText Contains   lt  DOCTYPE html

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you are get the view in string using this way  protected string RenderPartialViewToString string viewName  object model        if  string IsNullOrEmpty viewName           viewName   ControllerContext RouteData GetRequiredString  action         if  model    null          ViewData Model   model       using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter                  ViewEngineResult viewResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView ControllerContext  viewName           ViewContext viewContext   new ViewContext ControllerContext  viewResult View  ViewData  TempData  sw           viewResult View Render viewContext  sw            return sw GetStringBuilder   ToString              We are call this method in two way   string strView   RenderPartialViewToString    Views Shared  Header cshtml   null    OR  var model   new Person   string strView   RenderPartialViewToString    Views Shared  Header cshtml   model

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I found a better way to render razor view page when I got error with the methods above  this solution for both web form environment and mvc environment  No controller is needed   Here is the code example  in this example I simulated a mvc action with an async http handler            lt summary gt          Enables processing of HTTP Web requests asynchronously by a custom HttpHandler that implements the IHttpHandler interface           lt  summary gt           lt param name  context  gt An HttpContext object that provides references to the intrinsic server objects  lt  param gt           lt returns gt The task to complete the http request  lt  returns gt      protected override async Task ProcessRequestAsync HttpContext context                if  this  view    null                        this OnError context  new FileNotFoundException  Can not find the mvc view file   Localize                  return                    object model   await this LoadModelAsync context           WebPageBase page   WebPageBase CreateInstanceFromVirtualPath this  view VirtualPath           using  StringWriter sw   new StringWriter                          page ExecutePageHierarchy new WebPageContext new HttpContextWrapper context   page  model   sw               await context Response Output WriteAsync sw GetStringBuilder   ToString

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To render a view to a string in the Service Layer without having to pass ControllerContext around  there is a good Rick Strahl article here http   www codemag com Article 1312081 that creates a generic controller  Code summary below      Some Static Class public static string RenderViewToString ControllerContext context  string viewPath  object model   null  bool partial   false           first find the ViewEngine for this view     ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult   null      if  partial          viewEngineResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView context  viewPath       else         viewEngineResult   ViewEngines Engines FindView context  viewPath  null        if  viewEngineResult    null          throw new FileNotFoundException  View cannot be found             get the view and attach the model to view data     var view   viewEngineResult View      context Controller ViewData Model   model       string result   null       using  var sw   new StringWriter                  var ctx   new ViewContext context  view  context Controller ViewData  context Controller TempData  sw           view Render ctx  sw           result   sw ToString               return result        In the Service Class public class GenericController   Controller      public static T CreateController lt T gt  RouteData routeData   null  where T   Controller  new            create a disconnected controller instance     T controller   new T            get context wrapper from HttpContext if available     HttpContextBase wrapper      if  System Web HttpContext Current    null          wrapper   new HttpContextWrapper System Web HttpContext Current       else         throw new InvalidOperationException  Cannot create Controller Context if no active HttpContext instance is available          if  routeData    null          routeData   new RouteData            add the controller routing if not existing     if   routeData Values ContainsKey  controller    amp  amp           routeData Values ContainsKey  Controller            routeData Values Add  controller   controller GetType   Name ToLower   Replace  controller              controller ControllerContext   new ControllerContext wrapper  routeData  controller       return controller      Then to render the View in the Service class   var stringView   RenderViewToString CreateController lt GenericController gt    ControllerContext     Path To View Location  viewName cshtml   theViewModel  true

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This article describes how to render a View to a string in different scenarios    MVC Controller calling another of its own ActionMethods MVC Controller calling an ActionMethod of another MVC Controller WebAPI Controller calling an ActionMethod of an MVC Controller   The solution code is provided as a class called ViewRenderer  It is part of Rick Stahl s WestwindToolkit at GitHub   Usage  3  - WebAPI example    string html   ViewRenderer RenderView    Areas ReportDetail Views ReportDetail Index cshtml   ReportVM Create id

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If you want to forgo MVC entirely  thereby avoiding all the HttpContext mess     using RazorEngine  using RazorEngine Templating     For extension methods   string razorText   System IO File ReadAllText razorTemplateFileLocation   string emailBody   Engine Razor RunCompile razorText   templateKey   typeof Model   model     This uses the awesome open source Razor Engine here  https   github com Antaris RazorEngine

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To repeat from a more unknown question  take a look at MvcIntegrationTestFramework   It makes saves you writing your own helpers to stream result and is proven to work well enough   I d assume this would be in a test project and as a bonus you would have the other testing capabilities once you ve got this setup   Main bother would probably be sorting out the dependency chain    private static readonly string mvcAppPath         Path GetFullPath AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory                        MyMvcApplication     private readonly AppHost appHost   new AppHost mvcAppPath         Test      public void Root Url Renders Index View                 appHost SimulateBrowsingSession browsingSession   gt                RequestResult result   browsingSession ProcessRequest                  Assert IsTrue result ResponseText Contains   lt  DOCTYPE html

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This works for me   public virtual string RenderView ViewContext viewContext        var response   viewContext HttpContext Response      response Flush        var oldFilter   response Filter      Stream filter   null      try               filter   new MemoryStream            response Filter   filter          viewContext View Render viewContext  viewContext HttpContext Response Output           response Flush            filter Position   0          var reader   new StreamReader filter  response ContentEncoding           return reader ReadToEnd              finally               if  filter    null                        filter Dispose                      response Filter   oldFilter

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To render a view to a string in the Service Layer without having to pass ControllerContext around  there is a good Rick Strahl article here http   www codemag com Article 1312081 that creates a generic controller  Code summary below      Some Static Class public static string RenderViewToString ControllerContext context  string viewPath  object model   null  bool partial   false           first find the ViewEngine for this view     ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult   null      if  partial          viewEngineResult   ViewEngines Engines FindPartialView context  viewPath       else         viewEngineResult   ViewEngines Engines FindView context  viewPath  null        if  viewEngineResult    null          throw new FileNotFoundException  View cannot be found             get the view and attach the model to view data     var view   viewEngineResult View      context Controller ViewData Model   model       string result   null       using  var sw   new StringWriter                  var ctx   new ViewContext context  view  context Controller ViewData  context Controller TempData  sw           view Render ctx  sw           result   sw ToString               return result        In the Service Class public class GenericController   Controller      public static T CreateController lt T gt  RouteData routeData   null  where T   Controller  new            create a disconnected controller instance     T controller   new T            get context wrapper from HttpContext if available     HttpContextBase wrapper      if  System Web HttpContext Current    null          wrapper   new HttpContextWrapper System Web HttpContext Current       else         throw new InvalidOperationException  Cannot create Controller Context if no active HttpContext instance is available          if  routeData    null          routeData   new RouteData            add the controller routing if not existing     if   routeData Values ContainsKey  controller    amp  amp           routeData Values ContainsKey  Controller            routeData Values Add  controller   controller GetType   Name ToLower   Replace  controller              controller ControllerContext   new ControllerContext wrapper  routeData  controller       return controller      Then to render the View in the Service class   var stringView   RenderViewToString CreateController lt GenericController gt    ControllerContext     Path To View Location  viewName cshtml   theViewModel  true

[asp.net-mvc] How to render an ASP.NET MVC view as a string?

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