ASP.NET MVC - Set ViewData for masterpage in base controller

Question

I\'m using a masterpage in my ASP.NET MVC project. This masterpage expects some ViewData to be present, which displays this on every page.

If I don\'t set this ViewD

Answer 1

I see two options:

First:

Set the ViewData for MasterPage in YourBaseController.OnActionExecuting() or YourBaseController.OnActionExecuted():

public class YourBaseController : Controller
{
    protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        // Optional: Work only for GET request
        if (filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.RequestType != "GET")
            return;

        // Optional: Do not work with AjaxRequests
        if (filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest())
            return;

        ...

        filterContext.Controller.ViewData["foo"] = ...
    }
}

Second:

Or create custom filter:

public class DataForMasterPageAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        // Optional: Work only for GET request
        if (filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.RequestType != "GET")
            return;

        // Optional: Do not work with AjaxRequests
        if (filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest())
            return;

        ...

        filterContext.Controller.ViewData["foo"] = ...
    }
}

and then apply to your controllers:

[DataForMasterPage]
public class YourController : YourBaseController
{
    ...
}

I think the second solution is exactly for your case.