Pass objects into ControllerRendering

Question

I'm trying to pass some data into a ControllerRendering from a Razor view. I tried to pass it along as an object:

@model SBJSitecore82.Areas.Editorial.Models.ViewModels.IssueSectionViewModel[]

@foreach (var issueSection in Model)
{
    @Html.Sitecore().ControllerRendering("Module", "IssueSection", new { area = "Editorial", issueSectionViewModel = issueSection })
}

By in my controller, the object properties are always null, even though they are not null in the Razor view where it called the ControllerRendering.

public ActionResult IssueSection(IssueSectionViewModel issueSectionViewModel)
{
    return View(issueSectionViewModel);
}

So I decided to try to pass the object using the Datasource attribute in the Razor view:

@model SBJSitecore82.Areas.Editorial.Models.ViewModels.IssueSectionViewModel[]

@foreach (var issueSection in Model)
{
    @Html.Sitecore().ControllerRendering("Module", "IssueSection", new { area = "Editorial", Datasource = issueSection })
}

But that just passes a string into the RenderingContext.Current.Rendering.Datasource property. I saw an example where someone passed an ID into the Datasource and I presume they just did a GetItem with that ID. I could do the same, but that seems inefficient when I have a dozen of these items to process.

So the question is, how can I pass these objects over, or can I? Or should I just pass the ID over and retrieve the items?

Answer 1

The problem here is that a controller rendering in the Sitecore world is not the same as a Controller action result in standard MVC.

So you can't pass data through in the same way without custom code.

From your example, it looks like all you really need to do is use an @Html.Partial to render your other razor view and pass the data through like that. Your controller action is not doing anything with the data.

You're razor would become:

@model SBJSitecore82.Areas.Editorial.Models.ViewModels.IssueSectionViewModel[]

@foreach (var issueSection in Model)
{
    @Html.Partial("~/viewpath/IssueSection", issueSection)
}

I do this a lot for renderings where I have a section that is either in a loop or a small view that can be used in multiple other views.

Answer 2

The reason your model isn't being populated is because @Html.Sitecore().ControllerRendering("Module", "IssueSection", new { area = "Editorial", issueSectionViewModel = issueSection }) puts the properties of your anonymous object into the properties dictionary for the controller rendering you're calling, not route data.

The built-in MVC model binders only look at things in the current request (e.g., query parameters, body, route data) to build up action parameters, not rendering properties. You would have to write a custom model binder to do that.

I think Richard's approach will best meet your needs, but if you have some requirement that you need to call the Sitecore rendering pipeline, you can pass your model like this:

View

@model SBJSitecore82.Areas.Editorial.Models.ViewModels.IssueSectionViewModel[]

@foreach (var issueSection in Model)
{
    @Html.Sitecore().ControllerRendering("Module", "IssueSection", new { area = "Editorial", issueSection.Property1, issueSection.Property2, issueSection.Property3 })
}

Controller Action

public ActionResult IssueSection()
{
  var rendering = RenderingContext.Current.Rendering;

  var issueSectionViewModel = new IssueSectionViewModel
  {
    Property1 = rendering[nameof(IssueSectionViewModel.Property1)],
    Property2 = rendering[nameof(IssueSectionViewModel.Property2)],
    Property3 = rendering[nameof(IssueSectionViewModel.Property3)],
  };

  return View(issueSectionViewModel);
}

Note that the rendering properties dictionary only stores string values, so you will have to manually cast other property types (e.g., int, bool, etc.).