asp.net mvc3: How to return raw html to view?

Question

Are there other ways I can return raw html from controller? As opposed to just using viewbag. like below:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.HtmlOutput = "<HTML></HTML>";
        return View();
    }
}

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
}

@Html.Raw(ViewBag.HtmlOutput)

I admit that there are lots of reasons to inject html directly, but I was curious why you were in this case? — Rikon, Oct 07 '11 at 01:03

archil · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-11T06:22:56.233

156

There's no much point in doing that, because View should be generating html, not the controller. But anyways, you could use Controller.Content method, which gives you ability to specify result html, also content-type and encoding

public ActionResult Index()
{
    return Content("<html></html>");
}

Or you could use the trick built in asp.net-mvc framework - make the action return string directly. It will deliver string contents into users's browser.

public string Index()
{
    return "<html></html>";
}

In fact, for any action result other than ActionResult, framework tries to serialize it into string and write to response.

edited Jun 11 '13 at 06:22

answered Oct 07 '11 at 06:57

archil

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I agree with view generating html. my content thought is generated from a legacy dll. If the controller is not the right place to invoke, then maybe the model? – River Oct 07 '11 at 18:14
1

That is interesting about using a return type of string. Has that always worked? – Matthew Nichols Feb 19 '14 at 01:07
Yes. Anything that is not ActionResult is converted to string and returned response – archil Feb 19 '14 at 07:06
Is there a way to return it as a `PartialViewResult`? – Shimmy Weitzhandler Mar 30 '15 at 04:11
7

If you want to ensure it is rendered as html, add second parameter: `return Content("", "text/html");` – Grengas Aug 09 '19 at 12:47

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 02 '13 at 04:39

8

Simply create a property in your view model of type MvcHtmlString. You won't need to Html.Raw it then either.

edited Oct 02 '13 at 04:39

Valamas

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answered Oct 07 '11 at 04:23

Adam Tuliper

29,982
4
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Thank you. Didn't use exactly what you said. What you said helped me figure out using [DataType.Html] – Dexter Oct 07 '14 at 17:10

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered May 19 '15 at 11:05

6

Give a try to return bootstrap alert message, this worked for me

return Content("<div class='alert alert-success'><a class='close' data-dismiss='alert'>
&times;</a><strong style='width:12px'>Thanks!</strong> updated successfully</div>");

Note: Don't forget to add bootstrap css and js in your view page

hope helps someone.

answered May 19 '15 at 11:05

Shaiju T

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Thank you, it really helped me :) – rentire Aug 04 '15 at 06:43

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 30 '20 at 09:09

What was working for me (ASP.NET Core), was to set return type ContentResult, then wrap the HMTL into it and set the ContentType to "text/html; charset=UTF-8". That is important, because, otherwise it will not be interpreted as HTML and the HTML language would be displayed as text.

Here's the example, part of a Controller class:

/// <summary>
/// Startup message displayed in browser.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>HTML result</returns>
[HttpGet]
public ContentResult Get()
{
    var result = Content("<html><title>DEMO</title><head><h2>Demo started successfully."
      + "<br/>Use <b><a href=\"http://localhost:5000/swagger\">Swagger</a></b>"
      + " to view API.</h2></head><body/></html>");
    result.ContentType = "text/html; charset=UTF-8";
    return result;
}

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 07 '11 at 00:47

That looks fine, unless you want to pass it as Model string

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        string model = "<HTML></HTML>";
        return View(model);
    }
}

@model string
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
}

@Html.Raw(Model)

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 06 '19 at 02:43

-1

public ActionResult Questionnaire()
{
    return Redirect("~/MedicalHistory.html");
}

answered Nov 06 '19 at 02:43

saktiprasad swain

340
2
8

4

Please describe in your answer, what was the problem, and how will this snippet solve it, to help others understand this answer – Lin Du Nov 06 '19 at 04:20

score -2 · Answer 7 · edited May 13 '16 at 07:25

In controller you can use MvcHtmlString

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        string rawHtml = "<HTML></HTML>";
        ViewBag.EncodedHtml = MvcHtmlString.Create(rawHtml);
        return View();
    }
}

In your View you can simply use that dynamic property which you set in your Controller like below

<div>
        @ViewBag.EncodedHtml
</div>

asp.net mvc3: How to return raw html to view?

7 Answers7

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