Render Full View as String in ASP.NET - asp.net

Question

I have found this code to render a partial view as a string:
public static string RenderPartialToString(string controlName, object viewData)
{
ViewPage viewPage = new ViewPage() { ViewContext = new ViewContext() };
viewPage.ViewData = new ViewDataDictionary(viewData);
viewPage.Controls.Add(viewPage.LoadControl(controlName));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb))
{
using (HtmlTextWriter tw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
viewPage.RenderControl(tw);
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
However I need to render a full view as a string (which contains ViewData).
What is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

Rendering a full view as string:
private string RenderViewToString(string viewName, object model=null)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
if (model != null)
ViewData.Model = model;
// you can pass in additional arguments to this function
// and manipulate the ViewData further if you need to
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(ControllerContext, viewName, null);
var viewContext = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, viewResult.View, ViewData, TempData, sw);
viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, sw);
return sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
}
}
Use like this, if you want to render a page without model:
var text = RenderViewToString("Index");
and like this, if you want to render a page with a model
var text = RenderViewToString("OtherPage", model);