surfacecontroller to return partialview

bh 444 posts 1544 karma points

Mar 10, 2022 @ 13:36

I'm attempting to return a PartialView to an ajax call. I ran into a situation where you can't browse directly to a PartialView. Which makes sense. Fortunately @carlosmosqueda got me looking at creating a controller to route to my PartialView. I've looked at ApiController, SurfaceController and RenderMvcController.

Best I can tell SurfaceController is the one I need. But, two things:

When I setup my controller, I still got a 404.
I couldn't figure out how to pass parameters from my SurfaceController to my PartialView.

My first SurfaceController - the issue with this is PartialView doesn't support ViewData. So this code won't compile without error.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web.Mvc;


    namespace maypplication.Controllers
    {
[Route("projects/[action]")]
    public class ProjectsListController : SurfaceController 
    {
        [Route("projects/{page?}/{pageSize?}")]
        public PartialViewResult GetProjects(int page, int pageSize)
        {
            return PartialView("/views/partials/PortfolioListMore.cshtml", new Umbraco.Web.Models.ContentModel(CurrentPage), new ViewDataDictionary { { "page", page }, { "pageSize", pageSize } });
        }
    }
    }

My second attempt at the controller - This compiles, but I get a 404 and I don't see how to pass ViewData to the PartialView.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web.Mvc;


namespace myapplication.Controllers
{
    [Route("projects/[action]")]
    public class ProjectsListController : SurfaceController
    {
        public PartialViewResult GetProjects()
        {
            return PartialView("/views/partials/PortfolioListMore.cshtml", new Umbraco.Web.Models.ContentModel(CurrentPage));
        }
    }
}

I would appreciate any advice on how to pass parameters to a PartialView from an ajax call via a SurfaceController (I think) and return that PartialView.

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Michael Cleverly 8 posts 120 karma points

Mar 11, 2022 @ 07:28

The thing to keep in mind when working with surface-controllers and Ajax, is that you will not have the Umbraco context available in the controller action, including culture context. So if you have multiple root nodes and/or cultures, you need to pass those parameters to the action. Here is an example:

    private readonly IVariationContextAccessor _variationContextAccessor;

    public ProjectsListController (IVariationContextAccessor variationContextAccessor)
    {
        _variationContextAccessor = variationContextAccessor;
    }

    [Route("projects/{page?}/{pageSize?}")]
    public ActionResult GetProjects(int id, int rootId, string culture)
    {
        var cultureInfo = new CultureInfo(culture);
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = cultureInfo;
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = cultureInfo;

        _variationContextAccessor.VariationContext = new VariationContext(culture);

        var root = (YourRootModel) Umbraco.Content(rootId);
        var projectsRoot = (ProjectsRootModel)Umbraco.ContentAtRoot().First(x => x.IsDocumentType("projectsRoot"));
        var projects= projectsRoot.Descendants<Project>().ToList();

        var vm = new YourViewModel()
        {
            Root = root,
            Projects= projects,
            Culture = culture
        };

        return PartialView("~/Views/Partials/_Projects.cshtml", vm);
    }

And your partial view will simply be a normal .cshtml with a viewmodel. If you need to use the Umbraco helper in the partial view, you can also pass that to the viewmodel:

vm.UmbracoHelper = Umbraco;

Let me know if this answers your question

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bh 444 posts 1544 karma points

Mar 11, 2022 @ 14:45

@MichaelCleverly many thanks for taking the time to respond.

Using your response as inspiration...I'm still getting a 404 on the ajax call.

my ajax call:

$.ajax({
            url: "/projects",
            Type: 'get',
            data: {
                page: currentPage,
                pageSize: pageSize
            },
            success: function (html) {
                $('#more-container').append($('#portfolio-more', $(html)));
                $(this).data('current-page', nextPage);
            }
        });

/Controllers/ProjectListController.cs:

using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web;
using myapplication.ModelsLibrary;

namespace myapplication.Controllers
{
    public class ProjectsListController : SurfaceController
    {
        [Route("projects")]
        public ActionResult GetProjects()
        {
            var projectsRoot = (Portfolio)Umbraco.ContentAtRoot().First(x => x.IsDocumentType("Portfolio"));

            return PartialView("~/Views/Partials/PortfolioListMore.cshtml", projectsRoot);
        }
    }
}

/Views/Partials/PortfolioListMore.cshtml

@inherits Umbraco.Web.Mvc.UmbracoViewPage<myapplication.ModelsLibrary.Portfolio>

@{ 
    Layout = null;


    var page = 1;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["page"]))
    {
        page = Convert.ToInt32(Request.QueryString["page"]);
    }

    var pageSize = 1;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["pageSize"]))
    {
        pageSize = Convert.ToInt32(Request.QueryString["pageSize"]);
    }


    var projects = Model.Children.Where(x => x.IsVisible()).Skip(page * pageSize).Take(pageSize);

}


<div id="portfolio-more">   

    @foreach(myapplication.ModelsLibrary.Project p in projects)
    {
        <a href="@p.Url()" class="row list-item ">
            <div class="col-12 col-lg-6">
                <h3>@p.Name</h3>
            </div>
        </a>
    }

</div>

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Michael Cleverly 8 posts 120 karma points

Mar 11, 2022 @ 18:39

To reach the surface controller from an ajax call, you need the following path:

/umbraco/surface/projectslist/{yourAction}

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Moran 285 posts 934 karma points

Dec 27, 2022 @ 14:54

Hi I can access this only using the "Get" action. Can I use this for a "Post" action?

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bh 444 posts 1544 karma points

Mar 11, 2022 @ 20:20

Here's the final controller! Many thanks to @michaelcleverly!!

namespace myapplication.Controllers
{
    public class ProjectsListController : SurfaceController
    {
        [Route("projects")]
        public ActionResult GetProjects()
        {
            var root = (Home)Umbraco.Content(1066);
            var projectsRoot = root.DescendantOfType("Portfolio");

            return PartialView("~/Views/Partials/PortfolioListMore.cshtml", projectsRoot);
        }
    }
}

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SurfaceController to Return PartialView