I'm pleased to announce that the first step of AspView refactoring is over. The pre-compilation process is now way more coherent and easy to follow and to test. Soon enough, as I'll complete adding a service locator to the mix, it would also be easily extensible.

What can you do now that you couldn't have done before? Use a custom base class for views.

For example: let's say that you have created a supercool helper. You'd probably name it SuperCoolHelper. Now you register that helper on the controller:

[Helper(typeof(SuperCoolHelper))]
public class MyController ...

You can, ofcourse declare it on every view:

<aspview:parameters>
<%
SuperCoolHelper SuperCoolHelper;
%>
</aspview:parameters>

<%=MyCoolHelper.CoolStuff() %>

You can also use the DictionaryAdapter and add the helper to the base view interface:

public interface IView
{
    SuperCoolHelper SuperCoolHelper { get; set; }
}
...

<% Page Language="C#" Inherits="Castle.MonoRail.Views.AspView.ViewAtDesignTime<IView>" %>
...
<%=view.MyCoolHelper.CoolStuff() %>

But now you can create a base class for the view:

The base class:

public class MyView : AspViewBase
{
    SuperCoolHelper SuperCoolHelper { get { return (SuperCoolHelper)Properties["SuperCoolHelper"]; } }
}

A mocked class that inherit from Web.UI.Page to make intellisense play nicely:

public class MyViewAtDesignTime : ViewAtDesignTime
{
    SuperCoolHelper SuperCoolHelper { get { throw new NotImplementedException("useless"); } }
}

and in the view:

<% Page Language="C#" Inherits="MyViewAtDesignTime" %>
...
<%=MyCoolHelper.CoolStuff() %>

You can mix that with the DictionaryAdapter integration:

<% Page Language="C#" Inherits="MyViewAtDesignTime<IPostView>" %>
...
<%=MyCoolHelper.CoolStuff(view.Post.Title) %>

As usual: http://www.aspview.com