Message Control in Masterpage with ASP.NET MVC - asp.net

Question

Hey everyone. Got a custom on how to do this as im new to MVC and trying to get a couple of small things implemented. This is the way I did it in WebForms but want to transition it to MVC.
I have a user control that contains CSS which will render a message. This control is located in the MasterPage and called from a ASPX page like this:
Pseudo code:
try{
Msg.MessageMode = WebPageMessageMode.OK;
Msg.ShowOK("Report deleted.");
}
catch
{
Msg.MessageMode = WebPageMessageMode.ErrorMessage;
Msg.ShowError("There was a problem deleting the report.");
}
Masterpage.aspx
<cc1:WebPageMessage runat="server" ID="msg" />
I currently have the control in the MasterPage and now im a bit confused about proceeding from here.
Should I put the 'Msg' object above from the pseudo code to a View from the MasterPage?
What is the proper way to do something like?

Answer 1

I dont think there is a one-solution-fits-all here.
Anyway this is my solution that uses jQuery:
1) Create a MyResultModel class to handle a message to the user
public enum MyResultType { Info, Error }
public class MyResultModel
{
public MyResultModel( MyResultType type, string message ) {
switch ( type ) {
case MyResultType.Info: Title = "OK"; break;
case MyResultType.Error: Title = "Error!!!"; break;
}
Message = message;
}
public String Title { get; set; }
public String Message { get; set; }
}
2) Create a Partial View named MyResult in the Shared Folder to handle the model
<%# Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<MyResultModel>" %>
<div id="resultTitle"><%: Model.Title %></div>
<div id="resultMessage"><%: Model.Message %></div>
3) Create and use a BaseController for your controllers and add the following method to it. The method simply add a custom Http Header to the response
protected PartialViewResult PartialView( string viewName, object model, string resultHeader ) {
Response.AppendHeader( "MyHttpCustomHeader", resultHeader );
return base.PartialView( viewName, model );
}
4) In your action return a MyResultView when you've done
[HttpPost]
public virtual ActionResult DoSomething() {
try {
//Do Something
return PartialView( "MyResult",
new MyResultModel( MyResultType.Info, "Operation Completed" ),
"HttpResultInfo" );
}
catch ( Exception ex ) {
return PartialView( "MyResult",
new MyResultModel( MyResultType.Error, ex.Message ),
"HttpResultError" );
}
}
5) Finally, Submit the form using jquery and handle the results.
$.ajax({
type: "post",
dataType: "html",
url: "your/url/here",
data: $("#myform").serialize(),
success: function (response, status, xml) {
var resultType = xml.getResponseHeader("MyHttpCustomHeader");
if (resultType == null) {
//No message do whatever you need
}
else {
//response contain your HTML partial view here. Choose your
//desidered way to display it
}
}
});
With a scenario like this you dont need to place a control on the master page. You can:
Show the view as it comes from the action without any modification
Use some fancy message display technique as StackOverflow does with the orange sliding message (in this case simply extract the title and the message from the returned html)
Use some fancy jquery plugin as jGrowl to show your message
If you want to check wether it is an Info/Error message simply check the custom header with jQuery in the else branch
var title = $(response).filter("#resultTitle").text();
var message = $(response).filter("#resultMessage").text();
if (resultType == "HttpResultInfo") {
showInfoMessage(title, message);
}
else if (resultType == "HttpResultError") {
showErrorMessage(title, message);
}
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

In a controller, as part of the action, you can set a message like this:
public ActionResult MyAction()
{
// Do some stuff
TempData["message"] = "This is a message.";
return View("MyView");
}
In your master page or in your view:
<%
string text = TempData["Message"] as string;
Response.Write(text);
%>