ASP.NET Core 6 MVC - access a view (.cshtml) page from a different class library project

Question

We have a scenario where we have to move couple of our view pages away from our Web API project to a separate class library. Where this class library will be be consumed by different Web API projects that needs to load these shared View pages as part of the functionality. I have been looking for a day now but cannot find a way how to do it.

The view pages work with no problems when accessed from within the Web API project but we have now moved these View pages into our existing common library (a class library) and added it as a reference to the Web API project. Basically when we build the application with the common class library containing the views (we changed the property to Content so it gets added on build time), it gets built and copied into the bin folder. So from this, we could say that the view files should be reachable as its just within the project assembly bin folder.

What happens now is that even if setting the web application builder to specify the Content directory to point to this, it still cannot see the View pages and I get an error

The view was not found

Code:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(new WebApplicationOptions { 
    Args = args,
    ContentRootPath = PlatformServices.Default.Application.ApplicationBasePath
});

What bugs me is that the same /Views folder is generated when we put back the View pages back to the Web API project. Same structure and files. Only when put to another project, it now cannot recognize it. Having the view pages on the Web API works while putting it to another project does not.

This is a required structure that we need to implement without the use of a RCL but would still work when referenced by different Web APIs. This may seem odd but this is what we need to do and if possible with only minimal changes.

Answer 1

After a few tries, we we're able to do this by setting the resource object to Embedded Resource and implementing the ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider in the common library to virtually map the location when it gets published as a NuGet. In this case, say like we have a folder named /StaticResources in our common lib. In the sample code below, Program refers to your program assembly or any class object within your application.

Code:

// Get embedded file assembly path to allow our static files to be read by the consuming apps
var manifestEmbeddedProvider = new ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(
    typeof(Program).Assembly,
    "/StaticResources");

// Sets the `/StaticResources` folder to be servable like a wwwroot folder
app.UseStaticFiles(new StaticFileOptions {
    FileProvider = manifestEmbeddedProvider,
    RequestPath = "/Resources"
});

// Use it like this
<script src="/Resources/MyScrtipt.js"></script>

For the View() to work, assuming your views are in /StaticResources folder.

var viewsFileProvider = new ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(
    typeof(Program).Assembly,
    "/StaticResources");

app.UseStaticFiles(new StaticFileOptions {
    FileProvider = viewsFileProvider,
    RequestPath = "/Views/Shared"
});

Hope this helps anyone who comes across this issue. Thank you for all of you who have shared their answers.