Most elegant way to ensure view model data for _Layout.cshtml

Question

In my application I have some basic user information that needs to be displayed on every page (name, profile img). At the moment I have simply set the model in the _Layout

Answer 1

I would create a BaseController which retrieves the data in the Initialize() override and sets it to a ViewBag property. Now derive every Controller you create from BaseController and in your layout use the ViewBag property to access your user data.

public class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected override void Initialize(System.Web.Routing.RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        base.Initialize(requestContext);

        // retireve data
        var data = new ApplicationBaseModel();

        // set to viewbag
        ViewBag.UserData = data;
    }
}

This way you do not have to derive all your model classes from ApplicationBaseModel. You can have strongly typed views and additionally your user data as a ViewBag property.