HTML Helpers are not rendered in html form - MS MVC

Question

I have a simple html form. The built-in HTML helpers are rendering. The markup is not created. What am I missing?

<asp:Content ID="Content5" ContentPlaceHolderID="IslandPlaceHolder" runat="server">
<%using (Html.BeginForm()){%>

    <div id="manifest">Manifest Option: <%Html.DropDownList("docid",ViewData["manifests"] as SelectList);%></div>
    <div id="release">Release Version: <%Html.TextBox("release"); %></div>
    <div id="locale">Localization: <%Html.DropDownList("localization"); %></div>
    <div id="label">Label: <%Html.DropDownList("label"); %></div>
    <div id="session">Session ID (optional): <%Html.TextBox("sessionInput"); %></div>%>
    <input type="submit" value="Build" />


  <%}%>
</asp:Content>

Answer 1

You need to change <% to <%= to output the markup. Right now it is making the call, but doing nothing with the returned string.

You'll also need to remove the semicolon at the end of the method calls.

<%= Html.DropDownList("docid",ViewData["manifests"] as SelectList) %>