Using partial views to simplify a complex view - a good approach?

Question

Is it correct to use partial views for the SOLE purpose of breaking down a more complicated view into separate chunks and therefore making it more readable?

It probably seems a silly question but the reason I ask is that everything I've read about using partial views involves a piece of the UI being re-used in multiple places. In my case the piece of UI being put into the partial view is only used in one place. It is therefore done solely for readability, but I'm not sure if the performance impact of this may outweight the increased readability. Thoughts?

Answer 1

I think that you shouldn't be worried about performance until it is a real problem, but you should be worried about your code from the first moment. I usually use partial views to simplify the logic or the structure of my views, as you are wanting to do.

Answer 2

Sure, that's an okay use for them. If it keeps the page organized so it's easier to maintain, I think it's fine.

Also, if I'm using caching, I find it easier to have my:

cache "this" do
  # render partial
end

I find it easier to read and keep track of things, especially on an overview or dashboard page where there are lots of different parts of the pages that you're including.

Answer 3

Whilst this is correct there are more uses.

• Reusability
• Ability to pass pack rendered html from your controller so you can append the partial view to the bottom of containers. Great for jQuery async calls
• Seperation of concerns
• Gives developers the ability to work on different sections of a page w/out getting in each others way.

Just to name a few.

Answer 4

I veto any large and complex view in our projects. Instead, we use RenderAction to extract those pieces of code into smaller chunks/parts. I blogged about it here:

http://eduncan911.com/blog/html-renderaction-for-asp-net-mvc-1-0.aspx

Basically, you move that logic and/or parts into Controllers.

Or, if you are just talking html - then yes, breaking down a view into RenderPartials works too.

Answer 5

I tend to be a bit more conservative. I only use a partial view when I know I'll need to reuse the code or I have multiple complex objects in ViewData that need to be displayed.

There's no right or wrong way here but I have worked on projects where there are a ton of partial views to make things "more simple" and I end up spending forever trying to track down where all the partials are (controller/action folder, shared folder, or elsewhere).

One thing about my approach though is if you have even the slightest thought that the view code may be reused down the line as the project changes use a partial. It will save a bunch of time down the road.