MVC3 Views unable to find added referenced class

Question

My view is having issues finding a class located in one of my references. This reference is to a dll built outside of the project.

The view always gives error:

The type or namespace name 'Company' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference)

Here is the controller. No issues there.

using Company.Entities;

public ActionResult Find()
{
    Person test = Person.SelectByADDistinguishedName("L*", false);
    return View(test);
}

Here is the View. The error occurs in the @Model line.

@model Company.Entities.Person

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Bob";
}

<h2>Find</h2>

My Views/Web.config currently looks like this

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="Company.Entities" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

I've checked similar threads like this one but to no avail.

Here is the message on the screen

Line 25:     using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
Line 26:     using System.Web.Routing;
Line 27:     using Company.Entities;
Line 28:     
Line 29:     


Source File: c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET

Files\root\49c9c7db\1f9dd5c8\App_Web_find.cshtml.a8d08dba.xro6gxci.0.cs Line: 27

If I strip out any mention of the assembly (out of web.config - no @using statments). I get the same error message when loaded but against this line

public class _Page_Views_Home_Find_cshtml : System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage<Company.Entities.Person> {

did you try closing your view and reopening it? Or are you getting the yellow screen of death when browsing your view? — Jimmy, Mar 07 '11 at 18:07
Compilation doesn't error out on syntax errors in views, are you sure the problem is in the view? — Jimmy, Mar 07 '11 at 18:11
The error is still - CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Dfait' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?). — Lareau, Mar 07 '11 at 18:24
The compilation problem doesn't exist in the view -- to what section of code does the error refer? — Jimmy, Mar 07 '11 at 18:28
When the view is open, the line @model Company.Entities.Person (Company is underlined) and the error show in the error list is the one i've mentionned above (the type or namespace name "Company" could not be found.. — Lareau, Mar 07 '11 at 18:38
This still happens in vs 2012 + MVC 4. Solved by @Lareau's solution. — prime23, Sep 19 '12 at 07:44

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '11 at 19:48

After working it with it for awhile, I ended up solving it.

I had to add the assembly under the assemblies section of the main web.config (not the one under the views)

Sample of the web.config.

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0">
  <assemblies>
    <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="Company, Version=2.0.31.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=df9010405db60e6d"/>
  </assemblies>
</compilation>

Thanks for people who gave me suggestions.

For some reason, even this doesn't work for me. It's driving me nuts that such a basic thing seems impossible. — Vincent Sels, Apr 01 '14 at 13:07

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 14 '13 at 10:12

4

Be sure to check your views directory for an additional web.config file. I seem to remember running into a similar problem because I hadn't updated the correct web.config. YMMV.

edited Aug 14 '13 at 10:12

Imad Alazani

6,688
7
36
58

answered Mar 07 '11 at 17:58

Hal

1,229
11
26

Hi Hal, thanks for the quick response, I've added the content of my views/web.config. I've added the namespace to both the views/web.config and /web.config but no luck. – Lareau Mar 07 '11 at 18:00

live-love · Answer 3 · 2014-05-06T14:32:56.693

2

Adding the reference

before where you use your control, in .cshtml file works. Example:

@model IEnumerable<MyApp.Models.MyModel>
@using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

But you can put it in web.config, under namespaces tag. This way it is global to all views. Also, there is no need to specify the version:

<namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" />
</namespaces>

edited May 06 '14 at 14:32

answered May 06 '14 at 14:20

live-love

48,840
22
240
204

MVC3 Views unable to find added referenced class

3 Answers3