Return View() or PartialView()? How to decide? - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I hava an Action:
public ActionResult GetOrders(int id)
{
...
}
When I access it through hyperlink(~/Order/GetOrders/1), I want GetOrder return View(), the whole page.
When through #Html.Action("GetOrders"), I want it return PartialView() to be a part of a page.
Now i settled the problem using Erik Philips's method.
public ActionResult GetOrders(int id)
{
var orders = db.Order.Where(a => a.AdCompanyID == id).ToList();
ViewBag.AdCompanyName = db.AdCompany.Where(a => a.ID == id).Select(a => a.Name).First().ToString();
if (ControllerContext.IsChildAction)
{
ViewBag.isPartial = true;
return PartialView(orders);
}
ViewBag.isPartial = false;
return View(orders);
}
#{Html.RenderAction("GetOrders", new { id = Model.ID });}
#Html.ActionLink("Related orders", "GetOrders", new { id = item.ID })
in GetOrders.cshtml:
#if (ViewBag.isPartial == false)
{
...
}
to generate different view.
Queti M. Porta thanks all the same!

Answer 1

You can use the ControllerContext.IsChildAction.
public ActionResult Foo()
{
if (ControllerContext.IsChildAction)
{
return PartialView("GetOrdersPartial", model);
}
return View("GetOrders", model);
}
Also, I would recommend using Html.RenderAction.
Updated per Comment
I'd also mention that I've never had the need to do this, in my own experience. Either you really have a completely different view, or you are unaware that PartialView will return a view without a Layout.

Answer 2

An easy way would be to pass in a parameter into the action method to let it know how you want the view rendered.
public ActionResult GetOrders(int id, bool? isPartial)
{
return (isPartial.HasValue() && isPartial.Value)
? PartialView()
: View();
}
In the above example, we are passing in the isPartial, however, you can also check to see if the request was done via ajax using Request.IsAjaxRequest
Other than that, there aren't many other ways to determine the method of the request.