ASP.NET MVC3 Razor - create view from a string?

Is there a convenient way to return a view from a string instead of having to come from a file on disk?

I've implemented a custom VirtualPathProvider that handles retrieving views from a database, but I don't always want the view to be stored in the database.

Update 2-15-2011

I stumbled across a very nice open source component that simplifies the process of compiling开发者_如何学JAVA Razor views in code.I've replaced much of the Virtual Path Provider code with this component, and it's working incredibly well. I recommend it to anyone that's trying to compile views from a database or elsewhere who doesn't need the additional capabilities of a virtual path provider. This component lets you compile the view directly within your controller/app/whatever (web context and controller context not required) without having to jump through the VPP hoops.

You can run the view yourself by creating a RazorTemplateEngine which reads your source and compiles into a WebViewPage.

You can then run the WebViewPage by writing

webViewPage.OverridenLayoutPath = LayoutPath;
webViewPage.VirtualPath = ViewPath;
webViewPage.ViewContext = viewContext;
webViewPage.ViewData = viewContext.ViewData;

webViewPage.InitHelpers();
WebPageRenderingBase startPage = null;
if (RunViewStartPages) {
    startPage = StartPageLookup(webViewPage, RazorViewEngine.ViewStartFileName, ViewStartFileExtensions);
}
webViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy(new WebPageContext(context: viewContext.HttpContext, page: null, model: null), writer, startPage);

To support the new @model keyword, you'll need to override methods in your RazorEngineHost to use MVC's custom generators:

public override RazorCodeGenerator DecorateCodeGenerator(RazorCodeGenerator incomingCodeGenerator) {
    if (incomingCodeGenerator is CSharpRazorCodeGenerator) {
        return new MvcCSharpRazorCodeGenerator(incomingCodeGenerator.ClassName,
                                               incomingCodeGenerator.RootNamespaceName,
                                               incomingCodeGenerator.SourceFileName,
                                               incomingCodeGenerator.Host);
    }
    else if (incomingCodeGenerator is VBRazorCodeGenerator) {
        return new MvcVBRazorCodeGenerator(incomingCodeGenerator.ClassName,
                                           incomingCodeGenerator.RootNamespaceName,
                                           incomingCodeGenerator.SourceFileName,
                                           incomingCodeGenerator.Host);
    }
    return base.DecorateCodeGenerator(incomingCodeGenerator);
}

public override ParserBase DecorateCodeParser(ParserBase incomingCodeParser) {
    if (incomingCodeParser is CSharpCodeParser) {
        return new MvcCSharpRazorCodeParser();
    }
    else if (incomingCodeParser is VBCodeParser) {
        return new MvcVBRazorCodeParser();
    }
    else {
        return base.DecorateCodeParser(incomingCodeParser);
    }
}