Using TagBuilders in ASP.NET MVC

If you are relatively unfamiliar with developing in ASP.NET MVC, you may be developing code the "hard way" by using a StringBuilder to generate HTML strings and outputting them into your MVC Razor Views.

Well, fortunately, there is a much easier way to accomplish this through using HTML TagBuilders!  Using the TagBuilder is outlined in this article: http://www.asp.net/mvc/overview/older-versions-1/views/using-the-tagbuilder-class-to-build-html-helpers-cs

Therefore, if you want to output a custom Label Control to your ASP.NET MVC Razor View, you might use code like the following:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace ASPNETMVC.HtmlHelpers

{

    public static class HtmlTagHelpers

    {

        public static MvcHtmlString RenderLabelTag(this HtmlHelper helper)

        {

            var labelTagBuilder = new TagBuilder("label");

            labelTagBuilder.AddCssClass("control-label");

            labelTagBuilder.Attributes.Add("title", "someTitle");

            var spanTagBuilder = new TagBuilder("span");

            spanTagBuilder.Attributes.Add("style", "color:red");

            spanTagBuilder.SetInnerText("My TagBuilder Label control");

            labelTagBuilder.InnerHtml = spanTagBuilder.ToString();

            return MvcHtmlString.Create(labelTagBuilder.ToString());

        }

    }

}

Then in  your Razor View, you simply use code like the following:

@model IEnumerable<System.Security.Claims.Claim>

@using ASPNETMVC.HtmlHelpers

@{

    ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";

}

<div class="jumbotron">

    <h1>ASP.NET</h1>

    <p class="lead">ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.</p>

    <p><a href="http://asp.net" class="btn btn-primary btn-lg">Learn more &raquo;</a></p>

</div>

<div class="row">

    <div class="col-md-4">

        <h2>Getting started</h2>

        <p>

            ASP.NET MVC gives you a powerful, patterns-based way to build dynamic websites that

            enables a clean separation of concerns and gives you full control over markup

            for enjoyable, agile development.

        </p>

        <p><a class="btn btn-default" href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=301865">Learn more &raquo;</a></p>

    </div>

    <div class="col-md-4">

        @Html.RenderLabelTag()

    </div>

    <div class="col-md-4">

        @foreach (var item in @Model)

            {

                <p>@item.Value</p>

            }

    </div>

</div>

That is all there is to it!!