Can I use DisplayTemplates in Controller

Question

I have a partial view (Company.ascx) in the DisplayTemaplates folder. I can render its content in another view using following structure <% Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Company) %>.

Can I render and somehow get the Html string from within a controller? I need that because I'm using Ajax which have to return html (Company structure) as a result.

Answer 1

If your controller action needs to return the HTML result of the execution of this display template you could simply indicate the path to this template and pass the required model:

public ActionResult SomeAjaxAction() 
{
    var company = FetchCompanyFromSomewhere();
    return View("~/Views/Home/DisplayTemplates/Company.ascx", company);
}

As far as rendering a view to a HTML string is concerned there are some possibilities but I wouldn't recommend you doing it.