Using same partial view for edit and display

Question

I'd like to use the same partial view to both display a record and edit a record. The layout will be the same for both functions and it seems much cleaner than having an EditRecord partial view and a DisplayRecord partial view. Maintenance will be much easier if I only have one partial view to update.

I'm using this right now and it works:

<div class="editor-label">
    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
    @if (@ViewBag.ViewMode == "display")
    {
        @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.FirstName)
    }
    else
    {
        @Html.EditorFor(model => model.FirstName)
    }
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FirstName)
</div>

Is there a better way to do it?

Thanks.

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 31 '11 at 06:48

7

I strongly suggest using seperate edit and display templates. Trying to do them in a single form makes them more confusing, and harder to maintain in the long run. Seperation of concerns is the mantra of MVC, and you're trying to combine concerns..

answered Jul 31 '11 at 06:48

Erik Funkenbusch

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+1 yeah it's the whole seperation of concerns that is the big thing with mvc and @BKahuna's approach really breaks it – griegs Jul 31 '11 at 06:51
+1 there is a much better way to do it, as mentioned in this answer, separate your concerns! Also, avoid using ViewBag in production code unless you know exactly how amd why! – Anže Vodovnik Jul 31 '11 at 07:27
1

and you would end up with one view with 2 states, and having to manage that at all times, better separate them properly into separate views – BlackTigerX Aug 01 '11 at 01:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 31 '11 at 06:50

my 2 cents is to use two partial views. i believe it presents a better seperation of concerns and if you use say razor the amount of editing you need to do when you are updateing is minimal.

i also believe it represents a better model and allows for better seperation in your controller and above.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 03 '11 at 23:17

I recently had an application that needed a similar reuse of the same partial view. The idea was that the user would only see the display version unless they were authenticated and then furthermore made a request to change the data.

To avoid the big IF statement, I used the equivalent of the EditorFor in both (MVC 3 wasn't actually out yet, so I had some more work to do for it). But the key was that the "display version" disabled everything from the server side unless the requirements had been met.

The appearance was that of the editor in both cases, but only one allowed you to actually edit. I recommend a similar tack for you unless your requirements are different.

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 31 '11 at 17:27

-1

While I am on board with the importance of segregating concerns I don't think it's the only tenet of modern programming. What about code reuse?

It seems to me that having two partial views that are virtually identical begs for a common control (in this case a common partial view). I must say that the maintenance overhead of having to update two partial views outweighs whatever ills comes from not segregating the edit/display functions. If I change a field label, add/remove a field, change a type or length I have to remember to do that in two places...and ensure I do it exactly the same in both.

I agree completely about the segregation of concerns except it seems that's more important at a higher level. Keep the presentation/business/data layers absolutely separate. Who wants to go back to the days of Classic ASP? However, I can't imagine what bad things will come as a result of adding some conditionals to a partial view to allow for code reuse. Is it messy? Well, a little but still fairly readable and the intent is obvious. I guess the reason I asked this question was to see if anyone had a cleaner way of implementing code reuse than with the conditionals.

Does anyone agree that in this case code reuse outweighs the benefit of segregation of concerns? If so, is there a better way of implementing it?

Thanks

answered Jul 31 '11 at 17:27

BKahuna

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I gotta disagree. Maintenance of single view with multiple concerns is more difficult than that of two views with a single concern each. Think about it. What if you later decide to hide some fields in display mode but leave them in update mode? Besides, it's not easy to test views in general. So don't put logics in any view. – Tae-Sung Shin Jul 31 '11 at 18:23
1

I think you may have missed the point of MVC a little. DRY is important but having one edit and display view makes everything from there harder. how do you seperate that in the controller? do you now add a check in the controller? so now you have multiple checks and have added complexity and added to the overall unreadability – griegs Jul 31 '11 at 22:39
@BKahuna - Why do you have two accounts with the same name? System says you've logged into both within the last few hours, so it can't be that you can't access the other. How ironic that you are arguing about reuse, then create two accounts. In any event, no. You are creating extra complexity for your views, and views should be as simple as possible. You are not repeating yourself, you have two seperate concerns.. displaying and editing. They require different markup (Display code doesn't need a form, for instance) so you are not repeating yourself. – Erik Funkenbusch Aug 01 '11 at 03:54
First, the IF logic in the view is just asking for a major mess as soon as he starts getting more data in there. Second, as he actually starts using this and making revisions, he probably have more edit fields than display fields which is even better reason to separate the concerns. Third the code he has to type is different in to the two cases. The controller logic will be different, and the whole thing will end up a scrambled mess. My vote is for separation of concerns. – Brett Allred Aug 02 '11 at 06:38

Using same partial view for edit and display

4 Answers4