MVC Partial View JsonResult Render Return Partial View as JSON in ASPNet MVC

In this article I will explain with an example, how to render (return) Partial View as JSON using JsonResult function from Controller in ASP.Net MVC Razor.

The Partial View will be populated from database using Entity Framework, converted to a HTML string and then returned as JSON from Controller to the jQuery AJAX function using JsonResult function in ASP.Net MVC Razor.

Database

This article makes use of the Microsoft’s Northwind Database. The download and install instructions are provided in the link below.

Download and install Northwind Database

Configuring and connecting Entity Framework to database

Now I will explain the steps to configure and add Entity Framework and also how to connect it with the database.

You will need to add Entity Data Model to your project by right clicking the Solution Explorer and then click on Add and then New Item option of the Context Menu.

MVC Partial View JsonResult: Render (Return) Partial View as JSON in ASP.Net MVC

From the Add New Item window, select ADO.NET Entity Data Model and set it’s Name as NorthwindModel and then click Add.

Then the Entity Data Model Wizard will open up where you need to select EF Designer database option.

Now the wizard will ask you to connect and configure the Connection String to the database.

You will need to select the

1. SQL Server Instance

2. Database

And then click Test Connection to make sure all settings are correct.

Once the Connection String is generated, click Next button to move to the next step.

Next you will need to choose the Entity Framework version to be used for connection.

Now you will need to choose the Tables you need to connect and work with Entity Framework. Here Customers Table is selected.

The above was the last step and you should now have the Entity Data Model ready with the Customers Table of the Northwind Database.

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespace.

using System.IO;

Controller

The Controller consists of two Action methods.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside this Action method, the Top 10 Customer records are fetched from the Customers Table of the Northwind Database and returned to the View.

Action method for handling jQuery AJAX POST operation

This Action method handles the call made from the jQuery AJAX POST function from the View.

The value of the customerId parameter is used to fetch the Customer record using Entity Framework which is then used to populate the Details Partial View.

Then using the ConvertViewToString method, the Partial View is converted to an HTML string.

The ConvertViewToString method accepts the Partial View name and the Model object as parameter. The name of the View and the context of the Controller are used to find the Partial View and its ViewEngineResult object is created.

Using the ViewEngineResult object, the ViewContext object is determined. Now using the Render function of the ViewEngineResult class, the Partial View is rendered into a StringWriter class object.

Finally the StringWriter class object is converted to String which is then wrapped into a JSON object and returned to the View.

public class HomeController : Controller

{

// GET: Home

public ActionResult Index()

{

NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();

return View(from customer in entities.Customers.Take(10)

select customer);

}

[HttpPost]

public JsonResult Details(string customerId)

{

NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();

string viewContent = ConvertViewToString("Details", entities.Customers.Find(customerId));

return Json(new { PartialView = viewContent });

}

private string ConvertViewToString(string viewName, object model)

{

ViewData.Model = model;

using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter())

{

ViewEngineResult vResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(ControllerContext, viewName);

ViewContext vContext = new ViewContext(this.ControllerContext, vResult.View, ViewData, new TempDataDictionary(), writer);

vResult.View.Render(vContext, writer);

return writer.ToString();

}

View

Now you will need to Right Click inside the Controller class and click on the Add View option in order to create a View for the Controller.

The Name of the View is set to Index, the Template option is set to Empty, the Model class is set to Customer Entity (the one we have generated using Entity Framework) and finally the Data context class is set to NorthwindEntities.

Inside the View, in the very first line the Customer Entity is declared as IEnumerable which specifies that it will be available as a Collection.

For displaying the records, an HTML Table is used. A loop will be executed over the Model which will generate the HTML Table rows with the Customer records.

The last column of the HTML Table consists of an HTML Anchor Link. The HTML Anchor Link has been assigned a jQuery Click event handler.

When the HTML Anchor Link is clicked, a jQuery AJAX Call is made to the Details Action method of the Controller and the Details Partial View is fetched as JSON which is finally displayed using jQuery Modal Dialog Popup window.

Note: For more details on how to use jQuery AJAX for calling Controller’s Action method in ASP.Net MVC, please refer my article ASP.Net MVC: jQuery AJAX and JSON Example.

@model IEnumerable<PartialView_JsonResult_MVC.Customer>

Layout = null;

}

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Index</title>

</head>

<body>

<h4>Customers</h4>

<hr/>

<tr>

<th>CustomerID</th>

<th>Contact Name</th>

<th>Country</th>

</tr>

@foreach (Customer customer in Model)

{

<tr>

<td>@customer.CustomerID</td>

<td>@customer.ContactName</td>

<td>@customer.City</td>

<td>@customer.Country</td>

</tr>

}

</table>

</div>

rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>

$(function () {

$("#dialog").dialog({

autoOpen: false,

modal: true,

title: "View Details"

});

$("#CustomerGrid .details").click(function () {

var customerId = $(this).closest("tr").find("td").eq(0).html();

$.ajax({

type: "POST",

url: "/Home/Details",

data: '{customerId: "' + customerId + '" }',

contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

dataType: "json",

success: function (response) {

$('#dialog').html(response.PartialView);

$('#dialog').dialog('open');

failure: function (response) {

alert(response.responseText);

error: function (response) {

alert(response.responseText);

}

});

</script>

</body>

</html>

Partial View

In order to add Partial View, you will need to Right Click inside the Controller class and click on the Add View option in order to create a View for the Controller.

The Name of the View is set to Details, the Template option is set to Empty, the Model class is set to Customer Entity (the one we have generated using Entity Framework), the Data context class is set to NorthwindEntities and finally the Create as a partial view option needs to be checked.

Inside the Partial View, in the very first line the Customer Entity is declared as Model for the Partial View. The details of the Customer is displayed using the Html.DisplayFor helper method.

@model Partial_View_MVC.Customer

<tr>

<td valign="top"><b>@Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Address):</b></td>

<td>

@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Address)

<br/>

@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.City),

@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.PostalCode)

<br/>

@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Country)

</td>

</tr>

</table>

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MVC Partial View JsonResult: Render (Return) Partial View as JSON in ASP.Net MVC

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