C# MVC razor view - HtmlHelper does not contain a definition for 'Sitecore'

Question

Has anyone experienced an error described in the image below where the HtmlHelper in razor view is not recognizing Sitecore when I try to specify a placeholder?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

There's a web.config that has Sitecore references that should exist in the /Views that is probably not right.

This can be a common occurrence if using a new .NET MVC Project in Visual Studio and it accidently overwrites the Sitecore version.

You can grab the web.config from the Sitecore Vanilla Zip file to compare.

   <system.web.webPages.razor>
     <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
        <namespaces>
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
          <add namespace="Sitecore.Mvc" />
          <add namespace="Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" />
        </namespaces>
      </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

Answer 2

I think you are missing Sitecore from your Views web.config. You web.config in the /views folder should look like this

   <system.web.webPages.razor>
     <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
        <namespaces>
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
          <add namespace="Sitecore.Mvc" />
          <add namespace="Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation" />
          <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" />
        </namespaces>
      </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

Answer 3

I also encountered the same thing. I grabbed the web.config from the habitat demo solution, one of the web.config from the views there and it works fine.

Here's the full web.config.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor"
                  type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host"
               type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
               requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages"
               type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
               requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host
      factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="Sitecore.Mvc" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

  <appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
  </appSettings>

  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="BlockViewHandler" />
      <add name="BlockViewHandler" path="*.cshtml" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode"
           type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

And a screenshot: