Cannot figure out something fundamental about ASP.NET MVC (not working simple sample of code included)

Question

Hello everybody.

I am trying to learn some ASP.NET MVC. Please bear with me but asp.net mvc is the first mvc framework i ever tried to learn. I do plan to learn more about mvc framework in different languages, but for now i got asp.net mvc.

I am fairly good with asp.net forms and love them, but would like to have another asp.net tool that allows me more freedom with HTML and JavaScript and Ajax.

The question i have is how partialViews are used ? Another question is as far as i understand from watching all the videos is that model for database, controler for action and business logic and view is for the display.

However i have a code that doesn't work, the View is pointing to the Model and not to what returning from controler (Trying to return partial view) I would really appreciate if somebody can point me in right direction and explain whats goes on.

Bellow is my simple code that doesn't work:

PartialView

<%@ Control Language="VB" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl(Of IEnumerable (Of MvcPortfolio.Defaultdb))" %>
    <p>
        <%=Html.ActionLink("Create New", "Create")%>
    </p>

    <table>
        <tr>
            <th></th>
        </tr>

    <% For Each item In Model%>

        <tr>
            <td>
                 <%= item. %>
            </td>
        </tr>

    <% Next%>

    </table>

Model

Public Function getProjects() As List(Of portfolio_project)
        Using myPortfolio As New PortfolioDataContext
            Try
                Dim projects = (From p In myPortfolio.portfolio_projects _
                                Select p).Take(5)

                Return projects
            Catch ex As Exception
                Return Nothing
            End Try
        End Using
    End Function

Controler: Function Index() As ActionResult

    Dim myPortfolio As New Defaultdb ' my controler
    Dim projectsList As List(Of portfolio_project) = myPortfolio.getProjects() 'getting list of all the projects in news

    Return PartialView(projectsList) 'returning partial view.hopefully will work
End Function

and Main page:

<%@ Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Main.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="MvcPortfolio" %>
<asp:Content ID="projectsContent" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="newsContent">
    <%Html.RenderPartial("Indexprojects")%>
</asp:Content>

Can somebody please explain me how to make this code to work, so i will have a normal working example. I want to use partial View because i want repeating stuff to be put in user control like pieces.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Dmitris,

Have a look at this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1107547/how-to-use-two-instances-of-the-same-ascx-in-the-same-page-in-asp-net-mvc. I think you will find some insight there.

Also, you should spend some time and go through the NerdDinner tutorial.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/04/28/free-asp-net-mvc-nerddinner-tutorial-now-in-html.aspx

Partial views are called from the view, like this:

<%= Html.RenderPartial("PartialViewName") %>

They are not generally called from the controller.