How to use Master Page from Web Forms in ASP.NET MVC Area

Question

I have added an MVC Area to an existing Web Forms project. I want to use the Master Page in all of the views for the MVC project. I don't understand how I am supposed to reference the MasterPage for the WebForms inside the MVC Area.

I have read these two articles:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MixingRazorViewsAndWebFormsMasterPagesWithASPNETMVC3.aspx

http://www.eworldui.net/blog/post/2011/01/07/Using-Razor-Pages-with-WebForms-Master-Pages.aspx

I have added a controller extensions class inside the controllers folder.

public static class ControllerExtensions
{
    public static ViewResult RazorView(this Controller controller)
    {
        return RazorView(controller, null, null);
    }

    public static ViewResult RazorView(this Controller controller, object model)
    {
        return RazorView(controller, null, model);
    }

    public static ViewResult RazorView(this Controller controller, string viewName)
    {
        return RazorView(controller, viewName, null);
    }

    public static ViewResult RazorView(this Controller controller, string viewName, object model)
    {
        if (model != null) controller.ViewData.Model = model;

        controller.ViewBag._ViewName = GetViewName(controller, viewName);

        return new ViewResult
        {
            ViewName = "RazorView",
            ViewData = controller.ViewData,
            TempData = controller.TempData
        };
    }

    static string GetViewName(Controller controller, string viewName)
    {
        return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName)
            ? viewName
            : controller.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
    }
}

Inside the /Views/Shared folder I have added three files:

_SiteLayout.cshtml

@RenderBody()

RazorView.aspx

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Areas/MyApp/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<dynamic>" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
    <% Html.RenderPartial((string) ViewBag._ViewName); %>
</asp:Content>

Site.Master

<%@ Master Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage" %>

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="TitleContent" runat="server">
    </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</head>
<body>
    <div>
        <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="MainContent" runat="server" />
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Inside the web.Config in the Shared folder under Views I added:

<system.web>
    <pages pageParserFilterType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewTypeParserFilter, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
            pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
            userControlBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <controls>
        <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" namespace="System.Web.Mvc" tagPrefix="mvc" />
      </controls>
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html"/>
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web>

In my controller it returns the MVC view correctly but the content from the MasterPage does not appear. How do I reference the master page for the Web Forms?

you might want to look at this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5161380/how-do-i-specify-different-layouts-in-the-asp-net-mvc-3-razor-viewstart-file?rq=1 — Jephren Naicker, Jul 10 '17 at 18:50

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '15 at 12:04

In short, you can't. Asp.net webforms controls requires viewstate and is parsed with a different "engine". Just because they're both Microsoft and .Net doesn't necessarily mean they are compatible. That doesn't mean running them together is impossible though.

You could always use a standard .aspx page which references your master page, and inside have an ajax driven content area. This content area could be refreshed with the returned ActionResults of your MVC controllers. So while it would look like you're going to mysite.com/default.aspx, the content would really be coming from mysite.com/Home/Index (or wherever you keep your default "home"). They would still be completely separate entities though, and any manipulation of controls for one by the other could result in an invalid viewstate in the masterr or a failure of an AntiForgeryToken.

How to use Master Page from Web Forms in ASP.NET MVC Area

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