Render Partial View Using jQuery in ASP.NET MVC

How do I render the partial view using jquery?

We can render the partial View like this:

<% Html.RenderPartial("UserDetails"); %>

How can we do the same using jquery?

You can't render a partial view using only jQuery. You can, however, call a method (action) that will render the partial view for you and add it to the page using jQuery/AJAX. In the below, we have a button click handler that loads the url for the action from a data attribute on the button and fires off a GET request to replace the DIV contained in the partial view with the updated contents.

$('.js-reload-details').on('click', function(evt) {
    evt.preventDefault();
    evt.stopPropagation();

    var $detailDiv = $('#detailsDiv'),
        url = $(this).data('url');

    $.get(url, function(data) {
        $detailDiv.replaceWith(data);         
    });
});

where the user controller has an action named details that does:

public ActionResult Details( int id )
{
    var model = ...get user from db using id...

    return PartialView( "UserDetails", model );
}

This is assuming that your partial view is a container with the id detailsDiv so that you just replace the entire thing with the contents of the result of the call.

Parent View Button

 <button data-url='@Url.Action("details","user", new { id = Model.ID } )'
         class="js-reload-details">Reload</button>

User is controller name and details is action name in @Url.Action(). UserDetails partial view

<div id="detailsDiv">
    <!-- ...content... -->
</div>

I have used ajax load to do this:

$('#user_content').load('@Url.Action("UserDetails","User")');

@tvanfosson rocks with his answer.

However, I would suggest an improvement within js and a small controller check.

When we use @Url helper to call an action, we are going to receive a formatted html. It would be better to update the content (.html) not the actual element (.replaceWith).

More about at: What's the difference between jQuery's replaceWith() and html()?

$.get( '@Url.Action("details","user", new { id = Model.ID } )', function(data) {
    $('#detailsDiv').html(data);
}); 

This is specially useful in trees, where the content can be changed several times.

At the controller we can reuse the action depending on requester:

public ActionResult Details( int id )
{
    var model = GetFooModel();
    if (Request.IsAjaxRequest())
    {
        return PartialView( "UserDetails", model );
    }
    return View(model);
}

Another thing you can try (based on tvanfosson's answer) is this:

<div class="renderaction fade-in" 
    data-actionurl="@Url.Action("details","user", new { id = Model.ID } )"></div>

And then in the scripts section of your page:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function () {
        $(".renderaction").each(function (i, n) {
            var $n = $(n),
                url = $n.attr('data-actionurl'),
                $this = $(this);

            $.get(url, function (data) {
                $this.html(data);
            });
        });
    });

</script>

This renders your @Html.RenderAction using ajax.

And to make it all fansy sjmansy you can add a fade-in effect using this css:

/* make keyframes that tell the start state and the end state of our object */
@-webkit-keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } }
@-moz-keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } }
@keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } }

.fade-in {
    opacity: 0; /* make things invisible upon start */
    -webkit-animation: fadeIn ease-in 1; /* call our keyframe named fadeIn, use animattion ease-in and repeat it only 1 time */
    -moz-animation: fadeIn ease-in 1;
    -o-animation: fadeIn ease-in 1;
    animation: fadeIn ease-in 1;
    -webkit-animation-fill-mode: forwards; /* this makes sure that after animation is done we remain at the last keyframe value (opacity: 1)*/
    -o-animation-fill-mode: forwards;
    animation-fill-mode: forwards;
    -webkit-animation-duration: 1s;
    -moz-animation-duration: 1s;
    -o-animation-duration: 1s;
    animation-duration: 1s;
}

Man I love mvc :-)