ASP.NET MVC Layout errors on deployed web role

Question

I getting the following exception on an MVC 4 web application that I'm evaluating on Azure.

Source: System.Web.WebPages
Message: Section not defined: "main".
Stack trace: at System.Web.WebPages.

WebPageBase.RenderSection(String name, Boolean required) at ASP._Page_Views_Shared__Layout_cshtml.Execute() in e:\sitesroot\0\Views\Shared\_Layout.cshtml:line 77 at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy() at System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy() at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage) at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.RenderSurrounding(String partialViewName, Action`1 body) at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.PopContext() at System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass25.b__22(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Web.Mvc.Controller.<>c__DisplayClass1d.b__18(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar) at System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecuteCore(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar) at System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.<>c__DisplayClass6.<>c__DisplayClassb.b__4(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar) at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

I originally ported the app over to azure and deployed it over a month ago and it was working correctly back then.  I've done a fair bit of work on the app and have just redeployed to Azure and I'm seeing this error.  If I run the application either in the Azure emulator or as a standalone web app I have no issues and if I browse to a new page that didn't exist in the first deployment I also don't get an issue so it seems like something is being cached somewhere.

I have completely deleted the role and redeployed and I have also browsed the App folder on the VM and confirmed that all of the cshtml files are current.  I have not configured the azure cache or CDN so I don't believe these are the cause.

Does anyone have any ideas on where to look next?

EDIT:

I changed the section "Main" to be optional and I now receive the following error:

The "RenderBody" method has not been called for layout page "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.

cshtml".

So it appears that it is actually some sort of nested layout issue.  Basically I have a single master layout _Layout.cshtml and a different sub layout for each section of the site.  The views then use the sub layout and each sublayout has @RenderBody() in it.  They all definitely work locally so there is something specific to the Azure web role.

Answer 1

Hi,

It seems that the same problem from you:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10220313/windows-azure-caching-cshtml-files

Did ming's suggestion solve your problem?

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Answer 2

No, that didn't help but I've done some more research and the issue appears to be with Html.RenderAction

I'm wondering if this is a problem with MVC3 vs MVC4 on the Azure servers??  I have System.Web.Mvc as part of the bin folder but this is the only reason I can think of as to why it works locally and not on the Azure server.

If I take my call to Html.RenderAction out the page loads without error.

Answer 3

Hi,

I have tested it at my side, but unfortunately could not reproduce your problem, i have created a ActionResult in HomeController.cs, and add partial view for this action, and in index.cshtml page, use Html.RenderAction() to render this partial view. It's work fine both in local and cloud environment:

ActionResult:

        public ActionResult Re()
        {
            ViewBag.Message = "custom";
            return PartialView();
        }

Add some text in Re.cshtml page,

Render Re partial view in Index.cshtml page:

@{
    Html.RenderAction("Re"); 
}

You can debug it now.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 4

OK, problem solved.  The issue was the partial view being returned from the RenderAction call was failing.  The issue was that the partial view used data from a SQL Azure database to populate a select list and the connection settings to the database were incorrect.

Now I thought I had tested the SQL Azure connection when I ran the application locally as I put in the Azure connection string but obviously not.

Unfortunately the error that was thrown lead us on a bit of a goose chase.