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Modified on 2010/09/27 09:23 by Krzysztof Koźmic Categorized as Uncategorized

Table of Contents [Hide/Show]

Folder Structure Convention
Selecting a View to Render
Passing Values to a View
The PropertyBag
Flash
Shared Views
Cancelling a View
Accessing Values Passed by the Controller
Javascript, Ajax and JSON

From the MonoRail perspective the view is in charge of presenting the data supplied by the controller. The controller is not aware of how the view is implemented, nor the underlying view engine you chose. This is intentional and is what separation of concerns is all about.

Folder Structure Convention¶

There must be a folder for the views. Each subfolder should be named after the controller's name. If the controller is associated with an area, that must be reflected on the structure as well.

Selecting a View to Render¶

When an action is invoked, MonoRail pre-selects the action name as the view to be rendered. For example:


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class CustomerController : Controller
{
	public void Index()
	{
	}
}

If the action Index is invoked (from a client's browser) the views\customer\index view file will be preselected.

File extensions

MonoRail will never use file extensions on the controller to define the view to be rendered. Every View Engine uses a different file extension, but that is not reflected on the controller's code.

If instead of sending the views\customer\index the programmer wanted to send a different view, she could use the RenderView method which selects a different view:


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class CustomerController : Controller
{
	public void Index()
	{
		RenderView("welcome");
	}
}

The code above will select a view file located at views\customer\welcome.

View processing

The view is not processed when RenderView is invoked. It just selects the view. The view process happens after the action method returns.

Passing Values to a View¶

The PropertyBag¶

You would probably want to supply data to the view so it can generate dynamic content. This should be done using the PropertyBag. For example:


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class TestController : Controller
{
	public void ShowTime()
	{
		PropertyBag["now"] = DateTime.Now;
	}
}

The PropertyBag is a dictionary. Every View Engine uses an approach to make the data available to the view. Using NVelocity View Engine as an example, the data will be present as a context variable. The following is a small NVelocity template example:


<html>
Hello, the time now is $now
</html>

For further examples of how to access the PropertyBag from other view engines see the View Engines section.

Flash¶

Flash is a way to persist a transient value between requests. It is useful when you perform some process and issue a redirect. On the redirect target you can check the Flash for a status code, error message or something equivalent. For example:


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class AdminController : Controller
{
	public void PasswordManagement()
	{
	}

	public void ChangePassword()
	{
		String passwd = Params["password"];
	
		if (passwd.Length < 6)
		{
			Flash["error"] = "Password too weak, operation aborted";
		}
		else
		{
			// Change password
		}
	
		RedirectToAction("PasswordManagement");
	}
}

The flow might be not clear in the example above. So, let's see what exactly happens:

The user accesses the action PasswordManagement.

A page with some action appears, including a change password form that posts to the ChangePassword action.

On the ChangePassword action we perform a naive check and, in the event of failure, add an entry to the Flash.

We send the user back to the PasswordManagement action sending a redirect.

The view for the PasswordManagement needs to check the Flash entry error and show a meaningful error message accordingly.

Shared Views¶

Some views could be shared among controllers, or you might want to render a view from another controller. For those cases, use RenderSharedView:


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class CustomerController : Controller
{
	public void Index()
	{
		RenderSharedView("common/welcome");
	}
}

The code above will select a view file located at views\common\welcome.

Cancelling a View¶

Although it might sound strange, there are situation were you do not want any view processing to take place. For those cases, use the CancelView method.


using Castle.MonoRail.Framework;

public class CustomerController : Controller
{
	public void Index()
	{
		CancelView();
	}
}

Accessing Values Passed by the Controller¶

Each view engine accesses the values in the PropertyBag and Flash differently. See the ViewEngines section for further information.

Javascript, Ajax and JSON¶

MonoRail provides integrated support for Javascript related development tools such as AJAX and JSON with your views. For further information on how to use these technologies with MonoRail see the topic entitled AJAX and JSON.

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