How to render an ASP.NET MVC view as a string?

Question

I want to output two different views (one as a string that will be sent as an email), and the other the page displayed to a user.

Is this possible in ASP.NET MVC bet

Answer 1

Additional tip for ASP NET CORE:

Interface:

public interface IViewRenderer
{
  Task RenderAsync(Controller controller, string name, TModel model);
}

Implementation:

public class ViewRenderer : IViewRenderer
{
  private readonly IRazorViewEngine viewEngine;

  public ViewRenderer(IRazorViewEngine viewEngine) => this.viewEngine = viewEngine;

  public async Task RenderAsync(Controller controller, string name, TModel model)
  {
    ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult = this.viewEngine.FindView(controller.ControllerContext, name, false);

    if (!viewEngineResult.Success)
    {
      throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("Could not find view: {0}", name));
    }

    IView view = viewEngineResult.View;
    controller.ViewData.Model = model;

    await using var writer = new StringWriter();
    var viewContext = new ViewContext(
       controller.ControllerContext,
       view,
       controller.ViewData,
       controller.TempData,
       writer,
       new HtmlHelperOptions());

       await view.RenderAsync(viewContext);

       return writer.ToString();
  }
}

Registration in Startup.cs

...
 services.AddSingleton();
...

And usage in controller:

public MyController: Controller
{
  private readonly IViewRenderer renderer;
  public MyController(IViewRendere renderer) => this.renderer = renderer;
  public async Task MyViewTest
  {
    var view = await this.renderer.RenderAsync(this, "MyView", model);
    return new OkObjectResult(view);
  }
}