ASP.NET MVC 2 - Views in separate assembly - No intellisense

Question

Hi, I've searched over the topics on Stackoverflow but this question hasn't been answered so far.

I have two projects in my solution: a) MVC Application b) Class Library.

The class library acts as a plugin, so it contains views. The main problem is that I have no intellisense in the view's markup for my classes contained within the class library (the same assembly as the views).

In the beginning I couldn't even write <%= Html.RenderAction... %>. I've solved that by adding a Web.config file to the class library with the following section:

<configuration>
<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true">
        <assemblies>
            <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
            <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
            <add assembly="System.Data.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
        </assemblies>
    </compilation>
</system.web>

Now it recognizes Html.RenderAction, etc in the view's markup. However I've no idea how to get access (with intellisense) to my classes contained within the same assembly as the views :(

Kind regards, Jakub

Answer 1

There is a separate list of namespaces in the config where you need to include your custom namespaces. The example below demonstrates in the simplified web.config you add your namespaces. If this still does not work make sure that your project and webconfig has correct references to the other assembly.

<configuration>
    <pages>
        <namespaces>
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc"/>
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax"/>
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html"/>
            <add namespace="System.Web.Routing"/>
            <add namespace="System.Linq"/>
            <add namespace="System.Collections.Generic"/>
            <add namespace="Blog.Models"/> <!-- These are my custom namepaces -->
            <add namespace="Blog.Views"/>
        </namespaces>
    </pages>
</configuration>

Answer 2

Out of the box, MVC does not support multiple projects. Check my previous questions for more detail.

Answer 3

The Spark viewengine as the same issue, see their documentation. Basically they say 'make a web app project' and treat it like a class library in every other way. Worked for me in Spark, maybe it'll work in your situation as well?