How to use ServiceStack Templates to support dynamic results based on request type?

Question

With ServiceStack's Razor Story we have a variety of ways of selecting which Razor View we want to use to render a page. Even better, and critical in my case, is we can pass in a Content-Type header (or query string parameter, or even page "suffix") as well to return the raw model in a variety of formats.

Is there any way to use ServiceStack Templates (now known as SharpScript) to do the same thing? I follow the example here but I just get back the standard HTML format response. It doesn't use my template, no matter how named.

Following the example in the v5.5 Release Notes:

[Route("/hello/{Name}")]
public class Hello : IReturn<HelloResponse>
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class HelloResponse
{
    public string Result { get; set; }
}

public class HelloService : Service
{
    public object Any(Hello request) => new HelloResponse { Result = $"Hello, {request.Name}!" };
}

Going to /hello/World?format=html provides me the standard HTML report, not my template. I followed another example to force it to use the template ....

public object Any(Hello request) =>
        new PageResult(Request.GetPage("examples/hello")) {
            Model = request.Name
        };

... and it ALWAYS returns my template, even if I specify /hello/World?format=json.

Is there any way to have Razor-like view selection for ServiceStack + ScriptSharp pages, but also support different response formats?

Answer 1

It's hard to answer a vague question like this without details of a specific scenario you want to achieve that's not working.

You can return Sharp Pages in a number of ways:

• When it's requested directly as a content page, e.g /dir/page -> /dir/page.html
• Using Page Based Routing, e.g /dir/1 -> /dir/_id.html
• As a View Page in response to a Service when it's named after the Request DTO or Response DTO, e.g /contacts/1 -> /Views/GetContact.html or /Views/GetContactResponse.html

Select which view to render inside your Service by returning your Response DTO inside a custom HttpResult:

public object Any(MyRequest request)
{
    ...
    return new HttpResult(response)
    {
        View = "CustomPage",  // -> /Views/CustomPage.html
        //Template = "_custom-layout",
    };
}

Add the [ClientCanSwapTemplates] Request Filter attribute to let the View and Template by modified on the QueryString, e.g: ?View=CustomPage&Template=_custom-layout

[ClientCanSwapTemplates]
public object Any(MyRequest request) => ...

Choosing which page you want to render inside your Model View Controller Service by returning a custom PageResult:

public class CustomerServices : Service
{
    public object Any(ViewCustomer request) =>
        new PageResult(Request.GetPage("examples/customer")) {
            Model = TemplateQueryData.GetCustomer(request.Id)
        };
}

Note: That the SharpPagesFeature resolves pages using your cascading AppHost.VirtualFileSources. In .NET Core it's configured to use its WebRoot, e.g /wwwroot.

For Sharp Pages to return its Response in Multiple Content Types:

as well to return the raw model in a variety of formats.

You need to use a Sharp APIs which return a value, e.g. /hello/_name/index.html:

{{ { result: `Hello, ${name}!` } | return }}

Answer 2

To succinctly answer my own question, the first option from @mythz is what I needed. After calling Plugins.Add(new SharpPagesFeature()) in my AppHost, I needed to return HttpResult from my service method:

public object Any(MyRequest request)
{
    ...
    return new HttpResult(response)
    {
        View = "CustomPage",  // -> /Views/CustomPage.html
        //Template = "_custom-layout",
    };
}