Hierarchical Component Architecture in MVC RSS

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  jfschwarz

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  1 Post

  Hierarchical Component Architecture in MVC

  Nov 17, 2010 11:19 PM|LINK

  I'm building an ASP.Net MVC 2 application with a component architecture. There are two different types of components: Elementary Components, which have an associated controller action rendering a partial view, and Layout Components, which render all their child components (Elementary Components or again Layouts) in a certain layout.

  Here is my generic RenderComponent() action method, which takes a component ID and renders the appropriate view:

  [ChildActionOnly]
  public ActionResult RenderComponent(int id)
  {
      ComponentRepository repository = new ComponentRepository();
      Component component = repository.GetComponent(id);
      if (component.ControllerName != null && component.ViewName != null)
      {
          // render elementary component
          return PartialView("Elementary", component);
      }
      else
      {
          // render layout
          return PartialView(component.Layout.ViewName, component);
      }
  }

  
  

  Elementary.ascx renders an elementary component:

  <%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<MyApp.Models.Component>" %>
  <% Html.RenderAction(Model.ViewName, Model.ControllerName); %>

  
  

  Currently the only existing layout is the VerticalLayout.ascx:

  <%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<MyApp.Models.Component>" %>
  <% 
      foreach (var child in Model.ChildComponents()) {
  %>
      <div class="layout-container">
      <% Html.RenderAction("RenderComponent", "Core", child.ID); %>
      </div>
  <%
      }
  %>

  ---

  The Problem:

  When I tried to render an example layout component with three associated elementary child components, the page wouldn't render. Some debugging revealed the following problem:

  RenderComponent(5) renders the layout view. For rendering the first child component in the layout,Html.RenderAction("RenderComponent", "Core", 1) is called in the view. Stepping further, I discovered that in effect RenderComponent(5) is called instead of RenderComponent(1)!!

  This obviously results in an infinite loop of the layout view rendering itself.

  ---

  Why is this happening? How can I fix it? Is my hierarchical component architecture incompatible with ASP.Net MVC? How would you build such a system in ASP.Net MVC?

  
  

  ASP.NET MVC asp.net

  • Moved by mbanavige on Nov 17, 2010 11:30 PM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 02:46 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 02:47 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 02:48 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 02:51 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 04:14 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 05:24 AM
  • Edited by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 05:25 AM
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  ignatandrei

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  Re: Hierarchical Component Architecture in MVC

  Nov 18, 2010 06:38 AM|LINK

  please call

  Html.RenderAction("RenderComponent", "Core",new {id= 1})

  My .NET blog : http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/ |2012 Programmer tools
  • Marked as answer by jfschwarz on Nov 18, 2010 09:37 PM