---
title: ViewComponentBase
summary: API reference for ViewComponentBase.
status: draft
owner: SAIF Documentation
last_reviewed: 2026-09-17
library: SAIF.Framework.Web.Mvc
reference_type: package
---

# ViewComponentBase

Root abstraction for server-rendered fluent UI components; owns `Render()`/`ToHtmlString()` plumbing that wraps the view's writer in an `HtmlTextWriter` and calls the derived type's `WriteHtml`, but its own `WriteHtml` is an empty virtual, so any derived type that doesn't override it renders nothing.

## Purpose
- Root abstraction for server-rendered fluent UI components; owns `Render()`/`ToHtmlString()` plumbing that wraps the view's writer in an `HtmlTextWriter` and calls the derived type's `WriteHtml`, but its own `WriteHtml` is an empty virtual, so any derived type that doesn't override it renders nothing.

## Context
- Namespace: `SAIF.Web.Mvc.UI`
- Assembly/package: `SAIF.Framework.Web.Mvc (source-shipping NuGet package)`
- Kind: abstract class

## Public members
| Member | Signature | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| HtmlAttributes | `public IDictionary<string, object> HtmlAttributes { get; }` | Attribute dictionary applied to the component's root element. |
| Id | `public string Id { get; set; }` | Element id of the rendered component. |
| Name | `public string Name { get; set; }` | Component name, used for element naming. |
| ViewContext | `public ViewContext ViewContext { get; }` | The MVC view context the component renders into. |
| Render() | `public void Render()` | Writes the component's markup to `ViewContext.Writer` by invoking `WriteHtml`. |
| ToHtmlString() | `public string ToHtmlString()` | Returns the component's markup as a string instead of writing it. |
| WriteHtml(HtmlTextWriter) | `protected virtual void WriteHtml(HtmlTextWriter writer)` | Empty in this base class; derived types must override it to emit markup. |

## Behavioral notes
- `Toolbar` (the only concrete derived type in this library) does not override `WriteHtml` with real markup — it only calls `base.WriteHtml`, so rendering a `Toolbar` currently emits no output (see [OP-23](../../operations/op-23-build-a-toolbar-through-the-fluent-api.md)).

## Sources
- `src/Web.Mvc/UI/ViewComponentBase.cs`