.net Html.RenderAction returns binary instead of HTML. Huh?!

Question

I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong here.

I have an action which returns a partial view:

public class SharedController : BaseController
{
public ActionResult StudentPoll()
        {
            WAM.X2O.FuelUpToPlayContext db = new WAM.X2O.FuelUpToPlayContext(WAM.Utilities.Config.ConnectionString);
            WAM.X2O.StudentPoll m = (from s in db.StudentPolls where s.IsActive == true select s).SingleOrDefault();

            return PartialView("StudentPoll", m);
        }
}

I implement the action like this:

<%Html.RenderAction("StudentPoll", "Shared");%>

The partial view looks like this:

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl< Fuel_Up_To_Play.Models.Shared.StudentPollModel >" %>
<%if(ViewData.Model != null){ %>
<div class="block">
    <div class="holder">
        <div class="frame">
            <h2 class="poll">Student Poll</h2>
            <!-- TODO - Student Poll has a form screen, and results screen. 
                 Results anim is here to demo what should happen after submision -->
            <form action="/Shared/SubmitStudentPoll" method="post" class="poll-form" <%if(ViewData.Model.StartingState == Fuel_Up_To_Play.Models.Shared.StudentPollModel.PollStates.RESULTS){%>style="display:none"<%} %>>
                <fieldset>
                    <span><%=ViewData.Model.StudentPoll.Question %></span>
                    <input type="hidden" id="student_poll" name="student_poll" value="<%=ViewData.Model.StudentPoll.ID %>" />
                    <%foreach(WAM.X2O.StudentPollAnswer answer in ViewData.Model.StudentPoll.RelatedStudentPollAnswers){ %>
                    <div class="row">
                        <input type="radio" class="radio" id="answer_<%=answer.ID %>" name="poll_answer" value="<%=answer.ID %>"/>
                        <label for="answer_<%=answer.ID %>"><%=answer.AnswerText%></label>
                    </div>
                    <%} %>
                    <input id="submitBtn" type="image" style="display:none" class="image" src="/Content/images/btn-submit-05.gif" />
                </fieldset>
            </form>
            <div class="progress-box" <%if(ViewData.Model.StartingState == Fuel_Up_To_Play.Models.Shared.StudentPollModel.PollStates.FORM){%>style="display:none"<%} %>>
                <span><%=ViewData.Model.StudentPoll.Question %></span>
                <%int answerCounter = 0;
                foreach(WAM.X2O.StudentPollAnswer answer in ViewData.Model.StudentPoll.RelatedStudentPollAnswers){ %>
                <div class="box">
                    <span class="names"><%=answer.AnswerText%><strong class="quesPctTxt" rel="<%=ViewData.Model.AnswerPercentages[answerCounter] %>"></strong></span>
                    <div class="progress-bar"><span class="quesPctBar"></span></div>
                </div>
                <%
                    answerCounter++;
                } %>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/Scripts/studentpollscript.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

    $(document).ready(function() {

        $("input.radio[name='poll_answer']").change(function() {
            $("#submitBtn").show();
        });

        $("#submitBtn").click(function() {

            $(".poll-form").ajaxForm(
                { dataType: 'json',
                    success: function(json) {
                        alert(json.Success);

                    }
                }
            );

        });
    });

</script>

<%} %>

Natually, I would expect this approach to return HTML. But no. Instead it appears that binary is being rendered in the browser. Obviously I'm doing something wrong but I don't know what.

Here's what is rendered in the browser: http://screencast.com/t/Mjg1OWJj

Any ideas folks? I'm stumped but I'm sure it's something simple that I'm missing.

Answer 1

I would guess that it simply isn't setting the content type correctly. What does a network trace (fiddler, etc) show? Perhaps try using View("StudentPoll", m); instead of PartialView(...)?

Also; be careful - many of those <%= look unsafe, i.e. not html-encoded.