Step By Step How to create a Nested WebGrid in MVC 4 in 10 minutes

In this tutorial we'll learn how to create a WebGrid nested inside another Webgrid with paging capabilities in MVC 4 in 10 minutes. The parent WebGrid will expose data dynamically loaded from database and will contain another WebGrid exposing another list of data represented by a one to many relationship.

The parent grid will display a list of Blog posts, while the nested webgrid will display the comments attached to each post.

We'll want to create a parent-child relationship between two webgrids , showing as follows:

This tutorial will use data fetched from the Entity Framework, exposing the following classes related by a one-to-many relationship:

To create the WebGrids we must create our own View, and it will not be difficult if we take advantage of the Scaffolding capacities of the MVC environment. So first let's create a new Controller called "BlogController", automatically scaffolding the necessary Views to cope with the CRUD functionality requirements. So right click over the Controllers folder, and add a new Controller:

Name it "BlogController", and select the template "MVC Controller with read/write actions and views, using Entity Framework":

The Context to use will be of course the one you named while creating your Entity Framework Data Model, and the Model will be the Blog class, because we'll be creating, updating and deleting Blog objects.
After you create the Controller, open it and take a look at the Action Methods created for you: there are action methods for displaying the list of Blog posts (Index method), to create new ones , to update them, and to delete:

Open the Views folder and see the Views that were created for you:

First of all, let's add a link to the _Layout .cshtml file Menu, in order to browse to the Blog web page from the Home page:

As you see, we got all CRUD functionality. But now we want a WebGrid with paging-sorting capabilities,  instead of a table. So we'll replace the <TABLE> with an WebGrid Html Helper: open the Index View:

And comment the whole  <table> tag:

Next, we'll instantiate a WebGrid, using an overload of the constructor method, and we'll set as its arguments the data included in the Model (an IEnumerable<Blog>), and the <div> tag to be updated when ajax calls in case you need to include links or buttons in your webgrids:

Now we display the markup of the WebGrid using the GetHtml() WebGrid method:

Notice we formatted all the fields we need, in order to properly display the dates and pictures. We also add the style to the grid (the CSS stylesheet will be added afterwards).
Now is time to add the nested gridview, in an appended column which we call "Comments":

In this details child gridview, we displayed the comments for each post, and also we formatted it with some CSS style.
The two grids, parent and child, are inside a <div> tag for ajax purposes, and will finally look as follows:

Add a new .css stylesheet file to the "Contents" folder:

Name the .css as GridStyle:

In the stylesheet we include all the style for the WebGrid, footer, header, hyperlinks, even the style for displaying adecuately the pictures:

The code (to copy-paste) is the following:

        .webgrid-table
        {
            font:italic 11px Verdana;
            width: 100%;
            display:grid;
            border-collapse: separate;
            border: solid 1px #98BF21;
            background-color: #f0c9a0;
            padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
        } 
        .webgrid-header
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;            
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .details-div
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .SecondaryGrid
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #000 !important;
            font: 600 11px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            width:180px;
        }
        .webgrid-footer, .webgrid-footer a
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c;
            color: #FFF;
            font: 900 14px Verdana;
            padding:3px 3px 3px 3px;
        }
        .webgrid-alternating-row
        {
            background-color: #e5d773;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
        }
        .title-column
        {
            font:900 13px Verdana;
            text-align:center;
        }
        .webgrid-img
        {
            width: 150px;
            height: 150px;
        }

Finally we add a <link> tag in the _Layout file, to include the .css in the Index View:

Buid (F6) and run your app (CTL-F5) , to get this presentation UI:

Notice that you can do paging:

In this tutorial we've learned how to create a WebGrid nested inside another Webgrid with paging capabilities in MVC 4 in 10 minutes, exposing data dynamically loaded from database and sent by the Action method from the web server.  
That's all!! 
Happy programming.....
        By Carmel Schvartzman

כתב: כרמל שוורצמן

Step By Step How to create partial views with Child Action Methods

        By Carmel Schvartzman

In this tutorial we'll learn how to create a partial view using Child Action Methods in MVC 4. Child Methods allow us to reuse code and markup, fully applying the DRY Software Paradigm ("Don't Repeat Yourself") , and avoiding the WET ("Write Everything Twice") approaches. The Child Actions cannot be invoked via regular user requests, instead they are invoked directly from the View. A Child Action method is to an Action method as a Partial View is to a View. 

In MVC there are 4 similar methods to render a Partial View, and it's important that we decide which one to use according to their properties:
1) The most widely used method is RenderPartial(), which is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream, and is easy to use as it doesn't require to code a Child Action. But the data for the partial view must already be loaded in the view Model. The problem with this approach is, we can be tempted to manipulate the data INSIDE the PRESENTATION LAYER, to send it to the partial view. When we pass data from a view to another view we are specifying how to instantiate entity objects, and that shoud be a Bussiness Layer task.

2) Partial() is essentially the same thing but, instead RenderPartial(), it returns a string with HTML encoding, and you can use it to instantiate a variable if you like.
3) RenderAction() requires from the developer to code a Child Action, and therefore you could separate presentation layer from the Repository or Bussiness Layer. Is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream.

4) Action() method is the same but it returns a string with HTML encoding. Using Action() you leave to the Controller (Child Action) the task of deciding which partial view to render. That way we leave to the Controller the responsability to make traffic decisions and to invoke Bussiness Logic. Also, this way we can make refactoring more neatly.
Child Actions are useful in building widgets and embedding them in the View. 

In this tutorial we'll create a Partial View and render it using an Action() call, being the presentation layer as this:

We'll display all Posts in a <TABLE> saved in a Partial View, and all Bloggers in another table from another Partial View. Each Partial View will be populated by a different Controller's Child Action.

First of all, let's create a new View inside the Shared folder at Views. This will be the "PostsList" Partial View:

 Now   for the "PostsList" Partial View, select "Blog" class for the scaffolding Model, and "List" for the template:

Open the _PostsList Partial View and take a look at the markup. It will be something like this (depending on your Entity Model):

Add the classes style definitions, CSS style that we'll add in a little bit, and look at the loop built by the template:

Notice we added the style classes to the <table> tag. Also, we've applied some formatting to properly display dates and pictures.

Now in order to display some style , add a new .css stylesheet file to the "Contents" folder:

Name the .css as GridStyle:

In the stylesheet we include all the style for the WebGrid, footer, header, hyperlinks, even the style for displaying adecuately the pictures:

The code (to copy-paste) is the following:

        .webgrid-table
        {
            font:italic 11px Verdana;
            width: 100%;
            display:grid;
            border-collapse: separate;
            border: solid 1px #98BF21;
            background-color: #f0c9a0;
            padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
        } 
        .webgrid-header
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;            
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .details-div
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .ActionsTH
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            width:180px;
        }
        .webgrid-footer, .webgrid-footer a
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c;
            color: #FFF;
            font: 900 14px Verdana;
            padding:3px 3px 3px 3px;
        }
        .webgrid-alternating-row
        {
            background-color: #e5d773;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
        }
        .title-column
        {
            font:900 13px Verdana;
            text-align:center;
        }
        .webgrid-img
        {
            width: 150px;
            height: 150px;
        }

Now open the "Index" View and invoke the Child Action using the Action() method:

Notice that we added a <link> tag , to include the .css in the Index View:

Finally, let's code the Child Method, creating first the Context in the Controller:

Now append the Child Action:

Notice that this Child Action deals directly with the data from a Repository, and also can decide whether to render some specific Partial View or another one.


Save and run the application:

That's all!! 

In this tutorial we've learn how to create a partial view using Child Action Methods in MVC 4, thus allowing us to reuse code and markup in future refactoring.  

Happy programming.....

כתב: כרמל שוורצמן

Step By Step How to create a Data List using partial views and Child Action Methods

        By Carmel Schvartzman

In this tutorial we'll learn how to create a Data List using partial views and Child Action Methods in MVC 4. Child Methods allow us to reuse code and markup, fully applying the DRY Software Paradigm ("Don't Repeat Yourself") , and avoiding the WET ("Write Everything Twice") approaches. The Child Actions cannot be invoked via regular user requests, instead they are invoked directly from the View. A Child Action method is to an Action method as a Partial View is to a View. 

In MVC there are 4 similar methods to render a Partial View, and it's important that we decide which one to use according to their properties:
1) The most widely used method is RenderPartial(), which is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream, and is easy to use as it doesn't require to code a Child Action. But the data for the partial view must already be loaded in the view Model. The problem with this approach is, we can be tempted to manipulate the data INSIDE the PRESENTATION LAYER, to send it to the partial view. When we pass data from a view to another view we are specifying how to instantiate entity objects, and that should be a Bussiness Layer task.

2) Partial() is essentially the same thing but, instead RenderPartial(), it returns a string with HTML encoding, and you can use it to instantiate a variable if you like.

3) RenderAction() requires from the developer to code a Child Action, and therefore you could separate presentation layer from the Repository or Bussiness Layer. Is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream.

4) Action() method is the same but it returns a string with HTML encoding. Using Action() you leave to the Controller (Child Action) the task of deciding which partial view to render. That way we leave to the Controller the responsability to make traffic decisions and to invoke Bussiness Logic. Also, this way we can make refactoring more neatly.
Child Actions are useful in building widgets and embedding them in the View. 

In this tutorial we'll create a Data List via using a Partial View rendered   through an Action() call, being the presentation layer as this:

We'll display all Posts in a <TABLE> saved in a Partial View. The Partial View will be populated by a  Controller's Child Action.

First of all, let's create a new View inside the Shared folder at Views. This will be the "PostsDetails" Partial View, selecting "Blog" class and "Details" for the scaffolding Model:

Open the _PostsDetails Partial View and take a look at the markup. It will be something like this (depending on your Entity Model):

Next we add the style classes to the <table> tag. Also, we've applied some formatting to properly display dates and pictures.

Now in order to display some style , add a new .css stylesheet file to the "Contents" folder:

Name the .css as GridStyle:

In the stylesheet we include all the style for the WebGrid, footer, header, hyperlinks, even the style for displaying adecuately the pictures:

The code (to copy-paste) is the following:

        .webgrid-table
        {
            font:italic 11px Verdana;
            width: 100%;
            display:grid;
            border-collapse: separate;
            border: solid 1px #98BF21;
            background-color: #f0c9a0;
            padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
        } 
        .webgrid-header
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;            
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .details-div
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .ActionsTH
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            width:180px;
        }
        .webgrid-footer, .webgrid-footer a
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c;
            color: #FFF;
            font: 900 14px Verdana;
            padding:3px 3px 3px 3px;
        }
        .webgrid-alternating-row
        {
            background-color: #e5d773;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
        }
        .title-column
        {
            font:900 13px Verdana;
            text-align:center;
        }
        .webgrid-img
        {
            width: 150px;
            height: 150px;
        }

Now open the "Index" View and invoke the Child Action using the Action() method inside the loop which displays all posts. We send to the Child Action the data corresponding to the current item:

Notice that we also added a <link> tag , to include the .css in the Index View.

Finally, let's code the Child Action Method, creating first the Context in the Controller:

Now we fetch all posts at the Index Action:

 Then we append the Child Action, which deals with ONLY ONE post sent by the Action() call:

Take into account that the Child Action is called by the View on each loop iteration, so you'll need to avoid a big number of calls if possible.

Save and run the application:

That's all!! 

In this tutorial we've learned  how to create a Data List using partial views and Child Action Methods in MVC 4, thus allowing us to reuse code and markup in future refactoring.  

Happy programming.....

כתב: כרמל שוורצמן

Step By Step How to create multiple partial views with Child Action Methods

        By Carmel Schvartzman

In this tutorial we'll learn how to create multiple partial views with Child Action Methods in MVC 4. Child Methods allow us to reuse code and markup, fully applying the DRY Software Paradigm ("Don't Repeat Yourself") , and avoiding the WET ("Write Everything Twice") approaches. The Child Actions cannot be invoked via regular user requests, instead they are invoked directly from the View. A Child Action method is to an Action method as a Partial View is to a View. 

In MVC there are 4 similar methods to render a Partial View, and it's important that we decide which one to use according to their properties:
1) The most widely used method is RenderPartial(), which is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream, and is easy to use as it doesn't require to code a Child Action. But the data for the partial view must already be loaded in the view Model. The problem with this approach is, we can be tempted to manipulate the data INSIDE the PRESENTATION LAYER, to send it to the partial view. When we pass data from a view to another view we are specifying how to instantiate entity objects, and that shoud be a Bussiness Layer task.

2) Partial() is essentially the same thing but, instead RenderPartial(), it returns a string with HTML encoding, and you can use it to instantiate a variable if you like.
3) RenderAction() requires from the developer to code a Child Action, and therefore you could separate presentation layer from the Repository or Bussiness Layer. Is fast because it writes directly to the HTTP response stream.

4) Action() method is the same but it returns a string with HTML encoding. Using Action() you leave to the Controller (Child Action) the task of deciding which partial view to render. That way we leave to the Controller the responsability to make traffic decisions and to invoke Bussiness Logic. Also, this way we can make refactoring more neatly.
Child Actions are useful in building widgets and embedding them in the View. 

In this tutorial we'll create multiple Partial Views and render them using Action() calls, being the presentation layer as this:

We'll display all Posts in a <TABLE> saved in a Partial View, and all Bloggers in another table from another Partial View. Each Partial View will be populated by a different Controller's Child Action.

First of all, let's create a new View inside the Shared folder at Views. This will be the "BloggersList" Partial View:

 Now do the same for the "PostsList" Partial View, selecting "Blog" class for the scaffolding Model.
Open the _BloggerList Partial View and take a look at the markup. It will be something like this (depending on your Entity Model):

Now in order to display some style , add a new .css stylesheet file to the "Contents" folder:

Name the .css as GridStyle:

In the stylesheet we include all the style for the WebGrid, footer, header, hyperlinks, even the style for displaying adecuately the pictures:

The code (to copy-paste) is the following:

        .webgrid-table
        {
            font:italic 11px Verdana;
            width: 100%;
            display:grid;
            border-collapse: separate;
            border: solid 1px #98BF21;
            background-color: #f0c9a0;
            padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
        } 
        .webgrid-header
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;            
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .details-div
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            
        }
        .ActionsTH
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c !important;
            color: #FFFFFF !important;
            font: 900 14px Verdana !important;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            width:180px;
        }
        .webgrid-footer, .webgrid-footer a
        {
            background-color: #c67f1c;
            color: #FFF;
            font: 900 14px Verdana;
            padding:3px 3px 3px 3px;
        }
        .webgrid-alternating-row
        {
            background-color: #e5d773;
            padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
        }
        .title-column
        {
            font:900 13px Verdana;
            text-align:center;
        }
        .webgrid-img
        {
            width: 150px;
            height: 150px;
        }

Now check that the second Partial View markup look something like this:

Notice we added the style classes to the <table> tag. Also, we've applied some formatting to properly display dates and pictures:

Now open the "Index" View and invoke the Child Actions using the Action() method:



Notice that we added a <link> tag , to include the .css in the Index View.

Finally, let's code the two Child Methods, creating first the Context in the Controller:

Now append the two Child Actions:

Save and run the application:

In this tutorial we've learned how to create multiple partial views with Child Action Methods in MVC 4, thus allowing us to reuse code and markup in future refactoring.  
That's all!! 
Happy programming.....

כתב: כרמל שוורצמן