Dynamically add Views in ASP.NET MVC

Question

I was originally developing a project for WPF, using MVVM, which had the benefit of allowing me to populate a list of views that I wanted available. Each view had a "Next" button that would progress to the next view in the list.

However, now I am trying to do the same in ASP.NET MVC. This is my first time using MVC, but I have an XML file, from which I need to generate this UI. These views, which are chosen from the script, also have components in them that are dynamic -- sometimes ViewA might need 3 "input views" nested in it, sometimes it might need 1.

I was achieving that before with ListBox, ItemsSource, and DataTemplate. So my question is this: how can I dynamically populate which views to display, and (more importantly) how can I dynamically fill those views with x number of control A, and y number of control B?

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're asking...but partial views can be used to encapsulate chunks of markup, which you can then render as needed within a parent view. — Troy Carlson
– Troy Carlson, Commented Jul 3, 2014 at 14:20
I think that is exactly what I want. Can I dynamically control the amount of partial views rendered in a parent view? Say sometimes, depending on user input, I want to display 1, and sometimes I want 2 of these partial views. Without using visible, can I control this? — Adam
– Adam, Commented Jul 3, 2014 at 14:30
Yes, you can control how many times partial views are rendered, but this occurs on the server side so every time your page layout needs to change you will have to request it from the server again. I'll try to type up a simple example... — Troy Carlson
– Troy Carlson, Commented Jul 3, 2014 at 14:33

Troy Carlson · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-03 14:55:41Z

First off, a high-level overview of the project structure...

YourProjectName

Controllers
- ProductController.cs
Models
- ProductViewModel.cs
Views
- _ProductPartial.cshtml
- ListProducts.cshtml

ProductViewModel.cs

public class ProductViewModel
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

ProductController.cs

public class ProductController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        // Create your model (this could be anything...)
        var model = new List<ProductViewModel>
        {
            new ProductViewModel { Name = "Apple", Description = "A red apple" },
            new ProductViewModel { Name = "Orange", Description = "An orange orange" }
        };

        // Return the main view and your model
        return View("ListProducts", model);
    }    
}

_ProductPartial.cshtml

@model YourProjectName.Models.ProductViewModel

<h1>@Model.Name</h1>
<p>@Model.Description</p>

ListProducts.cshtml

@model System.Collections.Generic.List<YourProjectname.Models.ProductViewModel>

@foreach (var product in Model)
{
    Html.Partial("_ProductPartial", product)
}

Summary

Now if you request that controller action (localhost/Product/Index or whatever it ends up being for you), the controller will create the model, render the parent view, and the parent view will render as many of the product partial views as necessary depending on the product model collection we defined in the controller. Views and partial views don't require models, but I imagine you will be using a model class of some sort to help you determine what/where/how many partial views to render in your parent views. This is about as basic as it gets but it should get you started in using partial views.

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