How do you access application variables in asp.net mvc 3 razor views?

asp.net-mvc-3, c#, razor

Solution

Views are not supposed to pull data from somewhere. They are supposed to use data that was passed to them in form of a view model from the controller action. So if you need to use such data in a view the proper way to do it is to define a view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public string LicenseName { get; set; }
}

have your controller action populate it from wherever it needs to populate it (for better separation of concerns you might use a repository):

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var model = new MyViewModel
    {
        LicenseName = HttpContext.Application["LICENSE_NAME"] as string
    };
    return View(model);
}

and finally have your strongly typed view display this information to the user:

<div>@Model.LicenseName</div>

That's the correct MVC pattern and that's how it should be done.

Avoid views that pull data like pest, because today it's Application state, tomorrow it's a `foreach` loop, next week it's a LINQ query and in no time you end up writing SQL queries in your views.

Problem

I set a Application variable in my global.asa.cs with: ``` protected void Application_Start() { ... // load all application settings Application["LICENSE_NAME"] = "asdf"; } ``` and then try to access with my razor view like this: ``` @Application["LICENSE_NAME"] ``` and get this error: ``` Compiler Error Message: CS0103: The name 'Application' does not exist in the current context ``` what is the proper syntax?

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