In this article I will explain with an example, how to render Partial View inside jQuery Dialog Modal Popup on Top of Parent View in ASP.Net MVC.
The Partial View will be populated and fetched using jQuery AJAX and finally it will be rendered as HTML inside jQuery Modal Dialog Modal Popup window.
 
 

Database

Here I am making use of Microsoft’s Northwind Database. You can download it from here.
Download and install Northwind Database
 
 

Creating an Entity Data Model

The very first step is to create an ASP.Net MVC Application and connect it to the Database using Entity Framework.
Note: For beginners in ASP.Net MVC and Entity Framework, please refer my article ASP.Net MVC: Simple Entity Framework Tutorial with example. It covers all the information needed for connecting and configuring Entity Framework.
 
Following is the Entity Data Model of the Customers table which will be used later in this project.
Render Partial View inside jQuery Dialog Modal Popup on Top of Parent View in ASP.Net MVC
 
 

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 POST operation

This Action method handles the call made from the jQuery 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.
Finally, the Partial View is returned from the Controller.
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 ActionResult Details(string customerId)
    {
        NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();
        return PartialView("Details", entities.Customers.Find(customerId));
    }
}
 
 

View

HTML Markup

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.

Displaying records

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.
Inside the HTML Markup, the following CSS file is inherited.
1. jquery-ui.css
2. jquery-ui.js
The, the following JavaScript file is inherited.
1. jquery.min.js
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 HTML 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<Partial_View_MVC.Customer>
 
@{
     Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h4>Customers</h4>
    <hr />
    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="tblCustomers">
        <tr>
            <th>CustomerID</th>
            <th>Contact Name</th>
            <th>City</th>
            <th>Country</th>
            <th></th>
        </tr>
        @foreach (Customer customer in Model)
        {
            <tr>
                <td>@customer.CustomerID</td>
                <td>@customer.ContactName</td>
                <td>@customer.City</td>
                <td>@customer.Country</td>
                <td><a class="details" href="javascript:;">View</a></td>
            </tr>
        }
    </table>
    <div id="dialog" style="display:none">
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.13.2/themes/base/jquery-ui.css" />
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.13.2/jquery-ui.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function () {
            $("#dialog").dialog({
                 autoOpen: false,
                 modal: true,
                 title: "View Details"
            });
 
            $("# tblCustomers.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:"html",
                     success: function (response) {
                        $('#dialog').html(response);
                        $('#dialog').dialog('open');
                    },
                     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.

Load (Render) Partial View in DIV using jQuery in ASP.Net MVC

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 are displayed using the Html.DisplayFor helper method.
@model Partial_View_MVC.Customer
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
    <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>
 
 

Screenshot

Render Partial View inside jQuery Dialog Modal Popup on Top of Parent View in ASP.Net MVC
 
 

Downloads

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