Get a reference to a compiled template

Question

I would like to set email related properties on my razor template base class which can be used to send an email with the rendered template as the body.

How can I get a reference to the compiled template?

Answer 1

No you can't and that's by design. But you probably want to do the following instead:

public class EmailDataHolder {
    public string Destination { get; set; }
    public string Subject { get; set; }
}
// In the custom TemplateBase class:
public class EmailTemplateBase<T> : TemplateBase<T>
{
    public EmailDataHolder EmailProperties { get { return Viewbag.DataHolder; } }
    // Or for even simpler templates
    //public string Subject { get { return Viewbag.DataHolder.Subject; }; set { Viewbag.DataHolder.Subject = value; } }
}

// Your code
public static Task SendEmailAsync<T>(string templateName, string destination, T model)
{
    var holder = new EmailDataHolder();
    dynamic viewbag = new DynamicViewBag();
    viewbag.DataHolder = holder;
    holder.Destination = destination;
    var body = Engine.Razor.Run(templateName, typeof(T), model, (DynamicViewBag)viewbag);

    MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
    msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(holder.Destination));
    msg.Subject = holder.Subject;
    msg.AlternateViews.Add(AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(body, null, MediaTypeNames.Text.Html));

    SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient();
    return smtpClient.SendMailAsync(msg);
}

If you want to use @model you want to configure RazorEngine to use this custom TemplateBase implementation:

config.BaseTemplateType = typeof(EmailTemplateBase<>);

and then you can use it like this:

@inherits EmailTemplateBase<HelloWorldModel>
@{
    Layout = "CI";
    EmailProperties.Subject = "Hello World";
    // with the simpler version
    //Subject = "Hello World";
}
Hello @Model.Name,<br/>
this is a test email...

While this doesn't really give you the reference to the compiled template it allows you to save data within the template and use it later.