How to create a custom class similar to HtmlHelper and initialize with ViewContext?

Question

Our project uses a lot of custom HtmlHelper extension methods to be referenced in views like:

@Html.MyHelperMethod()

However, I'd like to keep them separated out from the system ones and be able to do something like either of the following:

@Html.MyApp.MyHelperMethod()
@MyAppHtml.MyHelperMethod()

By following Razor HtmlHelpers with sub-sections? I was able to implement something like

@Html.MyApp().MyHelperMethod()

This just doesn't look as pretty with MyApp() as a function haha. So I set out to make my own class. I want it to be able to access the ViewContext just like HtmlHelper does:

public class MyHtmlHelper
{
    public ViewContext ViewContext { get; private set; }

    public MyHtmlHelper(ViewContext viewContext)
    {
        this.ViewContext = viewContext;
    }

    public MvcHtmlString MyHelperMethod()
    {
        //... Do something that accesses this.ViewContext
    }
}

However, I have no idea what to inherit and override (ViewPage?), where to put a MyHtmlHelper property or where to initialize. The other alternative idea I can come up with is create a BaseModel object all models inherit from and add a MyHtmlHelper property in it in order to do

@Model.MyAppHtml.MyHelperMethod()

This would require every controller method pass the context to the model object (in order to reference ViewContext), but this seems like a tedious trade-off. Any other ideas on how to "subsection" the helper methods not using functions?

UPDATE: Thanks to answers here, I found a detailed example in creating a custom HtmlHelper class like this: Changing Base Type Of A Razor View

SLaks · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-01T16:01:09.483

1

You need to create a class that inherits WebViewPage and adds your custom property, then change all of your views to inherit that class.

You can change the default base class in Web.config.

edited May 01 '13 at 16:01

answered May 01 '13 at 15:31

SLaks

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Thanks this worked for me. I found a detailed guide on doing exactly this and a custom HtmlHelper: [Changing Base Type Of A Razor View](http://haacked.com/archive/2011/02/21/changing-base-type-of-a-razor-view.aspx). – Roury May 01 '13 at 18:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 01 '13 at 17:58

0

I have the skeleton how you can proceed as follows

public MtWebViewPage<TModel> : WebViewPage
{
  public HtmlHelper<TModel> MyHtml {get;set;}
}

answered May 01 '13 at 17:58

Dan Hunex

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How to create a custom class similar to HtmlHelper and initialize with ViewContext?

2 Answers2