render view as a string in mvc 2

Question

Is there an easy way to caputer the output of a view or partial view as a string?

Answer 1

for a partial view, no problem:

public static class ExtensionMethods
{
    public static string RenderPartialToString(this ControllerBase controller, string partialName, object model)
    {
        var vd = new ViewDataDictionary(controller.ViewData);
        var vp = new ViewPage
        {
            ViewData = vd,
            ViewContext = new ViewContext(),
            Url = new UrlHelper(controller.ControllerContext.RequestContext)
        };

        ViewEngineResult result = ViewEngines
                                  .Engines
                                  .FindPartialView(controller.ControllerContext, partialName);

        if (result.View == null)
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException(
            string.Format("The partial view '{0}' could not be found", partialName));
        }
        var partialPath = ((WebFormView)result.View).ViewPath;

        vp.ViewData.Model = model;

        Control control = vp.LoadControl(partialPath);
        vp.Controls.Add(control);

        var sb = new StringBuilder();

        using (var sw = new StringWriter(sb))
        {
            using (var tw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
            {
                vp.RenderControl(tw);
            }
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

usage in controller :

    public string GetLocationHighlites()
    {
        // get the model from the repository etc..
        return this.RenderPartialToString("PartialViewName", model);
    }

not sure about the usage for a 'normal' view as it wouldn't invoke the vp.LoadControl() part. however, i'm sure someone will have the similar code required for doing the same thing with a 'normal' view.

hope this partialview one helps you out for now.

jim