Need razor view engine auto-complete to work in a class library?

Question

We have a modular architecture where we have some views (cshtml) files in a separate project (class library). How can we get the syntax highlighting and autocomplete to work when the project isn't an MVC project?

Please note that the class library has controllers, views, models etc. It just doesn't have the web.config, global.asax, etc that a normal mvc project would have.

The intellisense works for everything but the so important model:

With MVC3 RTM, if you hover over the Model, you can now get a better error message:

C:\...\Index.cshtml: ASP.NET runtime error: There is no build provider registered for the extension '.cshtml'. You can register one in the <compilation><buildProviders> section in the machine.config or web.config. Make sure is has a BuildProviderAppliesToAttribute attribute which includes the value 'Web' or 'All'.

So I added this:

<compilation>
    <assemblies>
      <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    </assemblies>
    <buildProviders>
      <add
         extension=".cshtml"
         type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.RazorBuildProvider, System.Web.WebPages.Razor"/>
    </buildProviders>
  </compilation>

Then after adding the build provider, this error message appears:

C:\...\Index.cshtml: ASP.NET runtime error: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (C:\...\machine.config line 259)

Answer 1

The webconfig from this post will work. I've copied it below (for posterity):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>

    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
            <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
            <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>

    <system.web.webPages.razor>
        <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
            <namespaces>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
            </namespaces>
        </pages>
    </system.web.webPages.razor>

    <system.web>
        <compilation targetFramework="4.0">
            <assemblies>
                <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
                <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
                <add assembly="System.Data.Linq, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
                <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
            </assemblies>
        </compilation>
    </system.web>

</configuration>