The following sections have been defined but have not been rendered for the layout page

Question

This is an ASP.NET MVC 3 exception message. What it says? What should I do?

OK, I have this code:

@{
     Layout = \"~/_Layout.cshtml\";
     Page.Title          


        

Answer 1

The error message implies that your _Layout.cshtml does not include @RenderSection statements for the @sections that you have in your view.

Check your Layout and let us know.

See this page for more information.

Answer 2

When I received this error I was trying to conditionally include a section in my layout when it was defined by the view. Here is the layout:

@if (IsSectionDefined("header"))
{
    RenderSection("header");
}
else
{
    Html.RenderPartial("_Header");
}

I think @Jaider mentions this in his answer too, but you cannot place a RenderSection inside an if statement. The way to achieve my goal was to inverse the if and set the required parameter to false on the RenderSection method:

@RenderSection("header", false);
@if (!IsSectionDefined("header"))
{
    Html.RenderPartial("_Header");
}

If no setion is defined, the first line wont do anything and the If statement ensures a default header is rendered when no section is defined.

Answer 3

I faced a similar problem where the layout template indeed has the @RenderSection(...) but inside an if-else statement. So when the page executes the statement that doesn't contain the @RenderSection it will throw that exception. If that is your case, then your solution is a little more complicated, either:

• make sure you have @RenderSection outside of the statements or
• repeat @RenderSection in both if-else statements, or
• use different partial views, or
• redesign the layout.

That could be your main problem!

Answer 4

usually this error occurs if you do not write code for the section which is required by your master layout-page

Reference: https://ziaahmedshaikh.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/the-following-sections-have-been-defined-but-have-not-been-rendered-for-the-layout-page/

Answer 5

Your layout page isn't actually rendering the sections footer and meta

In your _Layout.cshtml, put in @RenderSection("meta") where you want the meta section rendered.

You can also do @RenderSection("meta", false) to indicate that the section is optional.