In this article I will explain with an example, how to embed a Partial View inside View i.e. render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC Razor.
The Partial View data will be fetched from database using
Entity Framework and then the Partial View will be rendered (embedded) using the
@Html.Partial function inside View 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.
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.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
From the Add New Item window, select ADO.NET Entity Data Model and set its Name as NorthwindModel and then click Add.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
Then the Entity Data Model Wizard will open up where you need to select EF Designer database option.
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Now the wizard will ask you to connect and configure the Connection String to the database.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
You will need to select the
1. SQL Server Instance
2. Database
And then click Test Connection to make sure all settings are correct.
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Once the Connection String is generated, click Next button to move to the next step.
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Next you will need to choose the
Entity Framework version to be used for connection.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
Now you will need to choose the
Tables you need to connect and work with
Entity Framework. Here
Customers Table is selected.
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The above was the last step and you should now have the Entity Data Model ready with the Customers Table of the Northwind Database.
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Controller
The Controller consists of the following Action method.
Action method for rendering View
Inside this Action method, the Top 10 Customer records are fetched from the Customers Table of the Northwind Database 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);
}
}
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.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
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 the @Html.Partial function which renders the Partial View.
The name of the View and the object of the CustomerModel class are passed to the @Html.Partial function.
@model IEnumerable<Partial_View_Entity_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="CustomerGrid">
<tr>
<th>CustomerID</th>
<th>Contact Name</th>
<th>Address</th>
</tr>
@foreach (Customer customer in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>@customer.CustomerID</td>
<td>@customer.ContactName</td>
<td>@Html.Partial("Details", customer)</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
</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.
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View 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 is displayed using the Html.DisplayFor helper method.
@model Partial_View_Entity_MVC.Customer
@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Address)
<br/>
@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.City),
@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.PostalCode)
<br/>
@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Country)
Screenshot
![Embed Partial View MVC: Render Partial View inside View in ASP.Net MVC]()
Downloads
