mvc3 use external layout page

I am attempting to build a preview functionality that allows the user to see the page as if it were in the live site. The thing I want to do is load that external layout file without having to copy the views or setup the global asax in the local project.

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

Maybe I am asking this wrong. Virtualpathprovider allows me to render a view as a string. The issue with this, is I want to render my layout page from a different project. This said view, has many different routes and scripts and css style, is in a live version of the website and I would like to be able to show a preview without having to add the same routes and scripts and pretty much every file into my administration project.

Here is what I have so far, but I am lost as how to load my layout this way.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Hosting;

namespace VirtualPathProviderExample.Core {
	public class ExampleVirtualPathProvider : VirtualPathProvider {
		private readonly string testAspxContent = "<%@ Page Language=\"C#\" MasterPageFile=\"~/Views/Shared/Site.Master\" Inherits=\"System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage\" %><asp:Content ID=\"indexTitle\" ContentPlaceHolderID=\"TitleContent\" runat=\"server\">Test Page</asp:Content><asp:Content ID=\"indexContent\" ContentPlaceHolderID=\"MainContent\" runat=\"server\"><h2><%= Html.Encode(ViewData[\"Message\"]) %></h2><br /><p>This is file by the name of <strong>~/Views/Home/Test.aspx</strong></p><p>This is a page that does not exist in anywhere but still it's there :D by means of VirtualPathProvider.</p></asp:Content>";
		List<VirtualFile> virtualFiles = new List<VirtualFile>();

		public ExampleVirtualPathProvider() {
			virtualFiles.Add(new SimpleVirtualFile("~/Views/Home/Test.aspx", testAspxContent));
		}

		public override bool FileExists(string virtualPath) {
			List<VirtualFile> files = (from f in virtualFiles where f.VirtualPath.Equals(virtualPath) select f).ToList();
			if (files.Count > 0)
				return true;
			else
				return base.FileExists(virtualPath);
		}

		private class SimpleVirtualFile : VirtualFile {
			private string content;

			public SimpleVirtualFile(string filename, string content)
				: base(filename) {
				this.content = content;
			}

			public override Stream Open() {
				ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
				return new MemoryStream(encoding.GetBytes(content), false);
			}
		}

		public override VirtualFile GetFile(string virtualPath) {
			List<VirtualFile> files = (from f in virtualFiles where f.VirtualPath.Equals(virtualPath) select f).ToList();
			if (files.Count > 0) {
				return files[0];
			} else
				return base.GetFile(virtualPath);
		}

		
		public override bool DirectoryExists(string virtualDir) {
			return base.DirectoryExists(virtualDir);
		}

		public override VirtualDirectory GetDirectory(string virtualDir) {
			return base.GetDirectory(virtualDir);
		}
	}
}

I guess, long story short, I should probably wire up the site to accept parameters on some authenticated section of the site.

I certain cannot do this because I get a virtualpath error.

@model SF.Library.WebContent.ContentPageEdit
@{
    //ViewBag.Title = TempData["title"].ToString() + System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AppendAllPageTitles"].ToString();
    Layout = "http://www.mysite.com/views/shared/_layout.cshtml";
}
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Preview";
}

<h2>Preview</h2>

<div class="faq">
    @{
        var displayMessage = TempData["DisplayMessage"];
        if (displayMessage != null)
        {
            if (displayMessage.ToString().ToLower().Contains("error"))
            {
        <div>
            <p>
                <font color="red">@displayMessage</font></p>
        </div>
            }
            else
            {
        
        <div>
            <p>@displayMessage</p>
        </div>
            }
        }    
    }
    @Html.Raw(HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(@Model.ContentBody))
</div>

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

my error:

Server Error in '/' Application.

'http:/www.xxx.com/views/shared/xxx/_layout.cshtml' is not a valid virtual path.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: 'http:/www.xxx.com/views/shared/xxx/_layout.cshtml' is not a valid virtual path.
Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): 'http:/www.xxxx.com/views/shared/xxx/_layout.cshtml' is not a valid virtual path.]
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.CheckValidVirtualPath(String path) +332
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Combine(String appPath, String basepath, String relative) +304
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Combine(String basepath, String relative) +48
   System.Web.VirtualPath.Combine(VirtualPath relativePath) +178
   System.Web.VirtualPath.Combine(VirtualPath v1, VirtualPath v2) +108
   System.Web.VirtualPathUtility.Combine(String basePath, String relativePath) +64
   System.Web.WebPages.WebPageExecutingBase.NormalizePath(String path) +49
   System.Web.WebPages.WebPageExecutingBase.NormalizeLayoutPagePath(String layoutPage, Func`2 fileExists) +48
   System.Web.WebPages.WebPageExecutingBase.NormalizeLayoutPagePath(String layoutPage) +83
   System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.PopContext() +197
   System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage) +195
   System.Web.Mvc.RazorView.RenderView(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer, Object instance) +576
   System.Web.Mvc.BuildManagerCompiledView.Render(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer) +362
   System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +410
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +39
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__19() +60
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation) +391
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1e.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__1b() +61
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +285
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName) +831
   System.Web.Mvc.Controller.ExecuteCore() +136
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +233
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.System.Web.Mvc.IController.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +39
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClassb.<BeginProcessRequest>b__5() +68
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass1.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__0() +44
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass8`1.<BeginSynchronous>b__7(IAsyncResult _) +42
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +142
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.End(IAsyncResult asyncResult, Object tag) +54
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.End(IAsyncResult asyncResult, Object tag) +40
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClasse.<EndProcessRequest>b__d() +61
   System.Web.Mvc.SecurityUtil.<GetCallInAppTrustThunk>b__0(Action f) +31
   System.Web.Mvc.SecurityUtil.ProcessInApplicationTrust(Action action) +56
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +110
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) +38
   System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +690
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +194

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.272

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

You can't load a layout page from another domain. The layout page has to be contained within the solution.

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

Xequence
http:/www.xxx.com/views/shared/xxx/_layout.cshtml' is not a valid virtual path.

You can not see directly any view in the views folder. Rather, make an action that returns a view.

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

What if I am on the same domain?

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

has to be in the same project. The views have to be able to compile together. There are ways to get layouts to compile across multiple projects in the same solution (Orchard CMS does this) but you'll have to write a bunch of custom code to make it happen.

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

ryanw51
as to be in the same project. The views have to be able to compile together. There are ways to get layouts to compile across multiple projects in the same solution (Orchard CMS does this) but you'll have to write a bunch of custom code to make it happen.

What if my layout has custom controller calls? Won't these fail?

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

Make a VirtualPathProvider that handles virtual paths that start with a magic token and passes all other paths to its Previous property. For example:

public override VirtualFile GetFile(string virtualPath) {
    if (virtualPath.StartsWith("~/MySpecialTemplateServer"))
        return new MyServerVirtualFile(virtualPath);
    else
        return Previous.GetFile(virtualPath);
}

Hope this helpful
Regards
Young Yang

Re: mvc3 use external layout page

I have tried doing virtual path but I am missing a few pieces of information. What is ~/myspecialtemplateserver? Is this a virtual directory in iis? When I return this file, can I specify it in my razor view as my layout?

Such that Layout = GetFile("webserver/iisFolder/interestingLayouts")

Layout = GetFile("remoteServer/iisFolder/christmasLayout")