Static Rendering Views in Sitecore 6.6

Question

I was wondering if any way to statically invoke the View visualization is similar to how you could invoke a sublayer using the following web form code:

<sc:Sublayout Path="~/sublayouts/samplesublayouts.ascx" DataSource="SomeItemId" runat="server" /> 

I tried to do this:

 @Html.Sitecore().ViewRendering("~/renderings/samplerendering.cshtml", new { DataSource= "SomeItemId"}) 

But I can’t strongly name the rendering of the view unless I also create a rendering element in sitecore, and also create a model element in sitecore because I get and am mistaken. I would like to know if there is a similar simple procedure that I could use with MVC for static typing of internal renderings.

Answer 1

The approach shown below allows razor views to be statically attached to presentation elements without creating rendering elements.

In the layout.cshtml file layout.cshtml statically bind a razor view that does not have a rendering representation view element in Sitecore, and specify the DataSource element:

 @Html.Sitecore().ViewRendering("/views/StandaloneRendering.cshtml", new { DataSource = "/sitecore/content/Home/My Datasource Item" }) 

The appearance of the StandaloneRendering.cshtml razor is as follows:

 @using Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation @model RenderingModel @functions { public Sitecore.Data.Items.Item Item { get { var item = Sitecore.Context.Item; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.Rendering.DataSource)) { item = Sitecore.Context.Database.GetItem(Model.Rendering.DataSource); } return item; } } } <p>Item Name: @Model.PageItem.Name</p> <p>Datasource Path: @Model.Rendering.DataSource</p> <p>Datasource Item Name: @Item.Name</p> <p>Datasource Item Path: @Item.Paths.FullPath</p> <p>Datasource Item Template: @Item.TemplateName</p> 

The following data is displayed on the page:

 Item Name: Home Datasource Path: /sitecore/content/Home/My Datasource Item Datasource Item Name: My Datasource Item Datasource Item Path: /sitecore/content/Home/My Datasource Item Datasource Item Template: Sample Item 

A few things to know about:

• Sitecore fields displayed in razor view are not editable in the Page Editor.
• I highly doubt that the output of StandaloneRendering.cshtml will make it in the HTML sitecore cache.
• The Item property in the @functions block must be moved to some place so that it can be reused for several types of razors.
• This is a non-standard approach. This may confuse some people who expect to find a related rendering element in Sitecore.