asp.net mvc - MVC 5 Render View to String

Question

It seems, most code for rendering view into string doesn't work in MVC 5.

I have latest MVC 5.1.2 templates and I am trying to render view into string.

    public static String RenderViewToString(ControllerContext context, String viewPath, object model = null)
    {
        context.Controller.ViewData.Model = model;
        using (var sw = new StringWriter())
        {
            var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(context, viewPath, null);
            var viewContext = new ViewContext(context, viewResult.View, context.Controller.ViewData, context.Controller.TempData, sw);
            viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
            viewResult.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(context, viewResult.View);
            return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
        }
    }

Well, it's working but its output contains lots of $ marks instead tags. I read something about it was fixed in RC version, but that's old news.

Problem looks like this

<$A$><h1></h1> 
<table</$A$><$B$> class=""</$B$><$C$>> <tbody</$C$><$D$></$D$><$E$>></tbody>
</table></$E$>

I would like to ask, how do you render views into string in latest MVC 5 template ? Thanks.

Answer 1

Ok, seems I found a solution. Author of the idea is Yakir Manor.

class FakeController : ControllerBase
{
    protected override void ExecuteCore() { }
    public static string RenderViewToString(string controllerName, string viewName, object viewData)
    {
        using (var writer = new StringWriter())
        {
            var routeData = new RouteData();
            routeData.Values.Add("controller", controllerName);
            var fakeControllerContext = new ControllerContext(new HttpContextWrapper(new HttpContext(new HttpRequest(null, "http://google.com", null), new HttpResponse(null))), routeData, new FakeController());
            var razorViewEngine = new RazorViewEngine();
            var razorViewResult = razorViewEngine.FindView(fakeControllerContext, viewName, "", false);

            var viewContext = new ViewContext(fakeControllerContext, razorViewResult.View, new ViewDataDictionary(viewData), new TempDataDictionary(), writer);
            razorViewResult.View.Render(viewContext, writer);
            return writer.ToString();

        }
    }
}

It's a trick with fake context and response.

Example:

String renderedHTML = RenderViewToString("Email", "MyHTMLView", myModel );

My file MyHTMLView.cshtml is stored in Views/Email/MyHTMLView.cshtml. Email is a fake controller name.