How ViewBag in ASP.NET MVC works

Question

How does the ASP.NET MVC's ViewBag work? MSDN says it is just an Object, which intrigues me, how does "Magic" properties such as ViewBag.Foo and magic strings ViewBag["Hello"] actually work?

Also, how can I make one and use it in my ASP.NET WebForms app?

Examples would be really appreciated!

Answer 1

ViewBag is of type dynamic but, is internally an System.Dynamic.ExpandoObject()

It is declared like this:

dynamic ViewBag = new System.Dynamic.ExpandoObject();

which is why you can do :

ViewBag.Foo = "Bar";

A Sample Expander Object Code:

public class ExpanderObject : DynamicObject, IDynamicMetaObjectProvider
{
    public Dictionary<string, object> objectDictionary;

    public ExpanderObject()
    {
        objectDictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    }
    public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
    {
        object val;
        if (objectDictionary.TryGetValue(binder.Name, out val))
        {
            result = val;
            return true;
        }
        result = null;
        return false;
    }

    public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
    {
        try
        {
            objectDictionary[binder.Name] = value;
            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
}