Show partial views located on a remote server

First create a new directory named _RemotePartialsCache

in the folder ~/Views/

.

Extend HtmlHelper

with method RemotePartial

:

public static class HtmlExtensions
{
    private const string _remotePartialsPath = "~/Views/_RemotePartialsCache/";
    private static readonly IDictionary<string, string> _remotePartialsMappingCache = new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);

    public static MvcHtmlString RemotePartial(this HtmlHelper helper, string partialUrl, object model = null)
    {
        string cachedPath;

        // return cached copy if exists
        if (_remotePartialsMappingCache.TryGetValue(partialUrl, out cachedPath))
            return helper.Partial(_remotePartialsPath + cachedPath, model);

        // download remote data
        var webClient = new WebClient();
        var partialUri = new Uri(partialUrl);
        var partialData = webClient.DownloadString(partialUrl);

        // save cached copy locally
        var partialLocalName = Path.ChangeExtension(partialUri.LocalPath.Replace('/', '_'), "cshtml");
        var partialMappedPath = helper.ViewContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Server.MapPath(_remotePartialsPath + partialLocalName);
        File.WriteAllText(partialMappedPath, partialData);

        // add to cache
        _remotePartialsMappingCache.Add(partialUrl, partialLocalName);

        return helper.Partial(_remotePartialsPath + partialLocalName, model);
    }
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Then use it like this:

@Html.RemotePartial("http://localhost/PartialServer/view/calculator.cshtml")

      

        
        
        
      

    

You can also replace the original method Partial

with the above implementation (which will only work when the passed path is a remote url), but this is not recommended.