how to pass an image to multiple views in MVC 4

Question

I need to pass an image to multiple views throughout my MVC 4 project. What is the cleanest way about this? Image is saved as a byte Array. I have the image being saved to the database (this is input by the user) and I don't want to create a load of viewModels. Please note this is an MVC 4 application using Razor2 views, in C#.

Answer 1

You can go with something like this in your controller:
For downloadable files:

public ActionResult GetImage(string name)
{
    byte[] image = GetImageFromDb(name);
    return File(image, "image/jpg", "image1.jpg");
}

For files included in a view/page:

public FileContentResult GetImage(string name)
{
    byte[] image = GetImageFromDb(name);
    return FileContentResult(image, "image/jpg");
}

And use it in your views like this:

<img src="@Html.Action("GetImage", new { name = "image1"})">