I have created a treeview of Categories using nested partial views:
my Index page (that displays the treeview):
<div>
Category Menu:
<input type="button" value="1" name='selectCat_btn' />
<input type="button" value="2" name='selectCat_btn' />
</div>
<!-- Treeview -->
<% Html.RenderPartial("ItemCats_UL", Model); %>
<div id="CatSelectorOutput">
</div>
ItemCats_UL:
<div>
<ul id="catsTree">
<% Html.RenderPartial("ItemCats_LI", Model); %>
</ul>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" >
$(document).ready(function() {
$("#catsTree").treeview();
</script>
ItemCats_LI:
<%foreach (ItemCategory itemCat in Model)
{ %>
<li>
<%= itemCat.Name %>
<%if (itemCat.Children != null && itemCat.Children.Count() > 0)
{ %>
<ul>
<% Html.RenderPartial("ItemCats_LI", itemCat.Children); %>
</ul>
<%} %>
</li>
<%} %>
Now this treeview works perfectly when I return the basic View("Index", Model) from my controllers Index action on page load.
The trouble comes when I want to change the Categories Model displayed in my Treeview (the nested partialViews) from an AJAX call...
For example: I click one the 'Cats2' button and the page should display Categories with ParentID of 2 in the Treeview. I attempted this by returning a JsonResult of the html of the ItemCats_UL PartialView (using a RenderPartialToString method found here) from my Controller Action. As some of you might know Javascript won't run in your partial view when you use an AJAX form to return a PartialViewResult, and I need Javascript in my Treeview which is why I'm using the RenderPartialToString.
The category select button click handler:
<script type="text/javascript">
$("[name='selectCat_btn']").click(function() {
var CID = $(this).attr('value');
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "SelectCat",
dataType: "json",
data: { "CID": CID },
success: function(result) { $("#CatSelectorOutput").html(result.output); }
});
return false;
});
</script>
My Controller Action:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
[UrlRoute(Name = "SelectCat", Path = "selectCat")]
public ActionResult SelectCat(int CID)
{
IQueryable<ItemCategory> cats;
cats = ItemRepo.GetItemCats().WithCID(CID);
JsonResult result = null;
result = new JsonResult
{
Data = new
{
success = true,
output =
Helpers.RenderHelper
.RenderPartialToString("~/Views/Admin/AdminItemCatsUL.ascx",
cats)
}
};
return result;
}
The result:
The ItemCats_UL partialView displays! BUT the nested PartialViews (ItemCats_
LI) don't!
Error I receive when I step through the markup in the ItemCats_UL.ascx and hover over the 'Html' part of the following code:
<ul id="catsTree">
<% Html.RenderPartial("ItemCats_LI", Model); %>
</ul>
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: viewContext
Html = 'Html' threw an exception of type 'System.ArgumentNullException'
I'm wondering if there's a clever guy out there who can extend the RenderPartialToString method to include nested partialviews? Or am I missing something simple?