IL.VirtualViews 1.9.2.3

IL.VirtualViews

Library which allows virtually register *.cshtml file as .cs classes with special attributes.

How to use

• Reference IL.VirtualViews in your project
• Use registration extensions coming with library to activate functionality: (IServiceCollection)services.AddVirtualViewsCapabilities() or (WebApplicationBuilder)builder.AddVirtualViewsCapabilities()
• Use [VirtualViewPath("")] attribute for your classes with path to a view you want to register virtually
• Derive your class from IVirtualView interface and implement the content which view is supposed to have

Examples

[VirtualViewPath("/Views/Test.cshtml")]
class Sample : IVirtualView
{
    public static string ViewContent =>
    """
    @model string

    @Html.Raw(Model)
    """;
}

Virtual cshtml

There a support for .virtual.cshtml files that have build action Additional Files. Following location of such file there will be generated partial *.cs file with same name as source *.virtual.cshtml file. Autogenerated file will automatically have all the content that you have populated in .virtual.cshtml, so that you can only introduce your own(not source generated) partial part and decorate it with VirtualViewPath attribute.

Sample

/Test/Test.virtual.cshtml addded to solution with build action = Additional Files

and with content

@model string

@Html.Raw(Model)

will produce source generated file Test.g.cs:

using IL.VirtualViews.Interfaces;

namespace VirtualViews;

public partial class Test : IVirtualView
{
    public static string ViewContent =>
    """
    @model string
    
    @Html.Raw(Model)
    """;
}

Then you only need to create non-auto-generated partial part and decorate it with VirtualViewPath attribute with desired path original view was supposed to be handled for.

Registration behavior

When source generation is enabled, the package now also generates IL.VirtualViews.Generated.VirtualViewRegistry in your project. AddVirtualViewsCapabilities(...) uses this generated registry first, so virtual view discovery is compile-time driven instead of assembly-wide runtime scanning.

If no generated registry is present for an assembly, the previous reflection-based fallback is still used.

Debugging virtual views

By default, debug physical files are controlled by configuration key VirtualViews:Debug (true/false). When enabled, virtual view content is mirrored to temporary physical files and exposed through IFileInfo.PhysicalPath. This improves Razor diagnostics and makes virtual views easier to debug.

Example configuration:

{
  "VirtualViews": {
    "Debug": true
  }
}

You can still explicitly override this behavior in code:

services.AddVirtualViewsCapabilities(
    options => options.EnableDebugPhysicalFiles = true,
    "*"
);

or

builder.AddVirtualViewsCapabilities(
    options => options.EnableDebugPhysicalFiles = true,
    "*"
);