Different ways of rendering layouts in Asp.Net MVC

In this article, I am going to expose the different ways to apply layout pages for your application. Suppose we have to render the layouts as shown in the fig. by using various ways.

Method 1 : Control Layouts rendering by using _ViewStart file in the root directory of the Views folder

We can change the default rendering of layouts with in _ViewStart file by using the below code:

1.  @{

2.   var controller = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["Controller"].ToString();

3.   

4.   string layout = "";

5.   if (controller == "Admin")

6.   {

7.   layout = "~/Views/Shared/_AdminLayout.cshtml";

8.   }

9.   else

10. {

11. layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";

12. }

13.

14. Layout = layout;

15.}

Method 2 : Return Layout from ActionResult

We can also override the default layout rendering by returning the layout from the ActionResult by using the below code:

1.  public ActionResult Index()

2.  {

3.   RegisterModel model = new RegisterModel();

4.   //TO DO:

5.   return View("Index", "_AdminLayout", model);

6.  }

Method 3 : Define Layout with in each view on the top

We can also override the default layout rendering by defining the layout on the view by using the below code:

1.  @{

2.   Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_AdminLayout.cshtml";

3.  }