Been working on creating an interface to allow a modular approach to the UI, the background:
Allows users to drag and drop a module onto a div jQUery posts back to controller with the module and panel names Controller returns a JsonResult containing a view that has been rendered, specific to that module
Here is a picture of the UI so you can sort of see what I am doing:
Now, what I am trying to do, is in that JsonResult (Which contains a string output of a view rendering), is save some data back to the model, and refresh that dynamically rendered view, so that just the panel (Where the view has been rendered) updates.
Sounds complicated i know, so here is some code:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public JsonResult AddModule(string id, string returnTo)
{
string content = RenderView(id);
return Json(new { Target = returnTo, Content = content });
}
private string RenderView(string moduleName)
{
string result = "";
ContentModule module = (ContentModule)Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetType("TrustMRM.BLL.ContentModules." + moduleName + ",TrustMRM.BLL"));
module.TrustID = Settings.Default.TrustID;
module.DataBind();
this.ViewData.Model = module;
using (var sw = new System.IO.StringWriter())
{
ViewEngineResult viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(this.ControllerContext, moduleName);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(this.ControllerContext, viewResult.View, this.ViewData, this.TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
result = sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
return result;
}
The above is what handles the 'drop' of the module. I have an abstract class, ContentModule, and an implementation called BLLForumModule, there is a matching view, BLLForumModule.cshtml, that gets built, and returned in that string, strongly bound tot he BLLForumModule.
What is rendered is a drop down list, equal to some data to configure that particular module:
@model TrustMRM.BLL.ContentModules.BLLForumModule
@{
Layout = null;
}
@if (Model.IsConfigured)
{
<span>I am configured</span>
}
else
{
using (Html.BeginForm("RefreshModule", "Home"))
{
<h3 class="panelHeader">@Html.DisplayTextFor(m => m.Title)</h3>
<span>Select group</span>
@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.SelectedGroupID, Model.GroupSelection.Select(t => new SelectListItem { Text = t.GroupName, Value = t.GroupID.Value.ToString() }));
@Html.HiddenFor(x => x.ModuleID);
<input type="submit" value="Ok" />
}
}
Now, I am unsure of what to return, or how to handle this post in order to refresh that view, the one that was rendered as a string and sent back, any insight into this, and if anyone has done something similar before, perhaps my rendering the view to a string is the wrong approach?
The code to accept the form post:
public ActionResult RefreshModule(string ModuleID)
{
return View();
}
(Doesn't work)
