asp.net mvc2 - controller for master page and code organization
- by ile
I've just finished my first ASP.NET MVC (2) CMS. Next step is to build website that will show data from CMS's database. This is website design:
#1 (Red box) - displays article categories. ViewModel:
public class CategoriesDisplay
{
public CategoriesDisplay() { }
public int CategoryID { set; get; }
public string CategoryTitle { set; get; }
}
#2 (Brown box) - displays last x articles; skips those from green box #3. Viewmodel:
public class ArticleDisplay
{
public ArticleDisplay() { }
public int CategoryID { set; get; }
public string CategoryTitle { set; get; }
public int ArticleID { set; get; }
public string ArticleTitle { set; get; }
public string URLArticleTitle { set; get; }
public DateTime ArticleDate;
public string ArticleContent { set; get; }
}
#3 (green box) - Displays last x articles. Uses the same ViewModel as brown box #2
#4 (blue box) - Displays list of upcoming events. Uses dataContext.Model.Event as ViewModel
Boxes #1, #2 and #4 will repeat all over the site and they are part of Master Page. So, my question is: what is the best way to transfer this data from Model to Controller and finally to View pages?
Should I make a controller for
master page and ViewModel class that will wrap all this classes together OR
Should I create partial Views for
every of these boxes and make each
of them inherit appropriate class
(if it is even possible that it
works this way?) OR
Should I put this repeated code in
all controllers and all additional
data transfer via ViewData, which
would be probably the worse way :) OR
There is maybe a better and more
simple way but I don't know/see it?
Thanks in advance,
Ile
EDIT:
If your answer is #1, then please explain how to make a controller for master page!
EDIT 2:
In this tutorial is described how to pass data to master page using abstract class: http://www.asp.net/LEARN/mvc/tutorial-13-cs.aspx
In "Listing 5 – Controllers\MoviesController.cs", data is retrieved directly from database using LINQ, not from repository. So, I wonder if this is just in this tutorial, or there is some trick here and repository can't/shouldn't be used?
