title: How to use HtmlHelper inside a Controller from a different project?
body: <p>I'm working on a MVC project where the Views and Controllers are on different projects within my solution.</p>
  
  <p>The problem I'm trying to solve is this: I have an action which should return a Json with some information and an Html String.</p>
  
  <p>This Html string is already inside a partial view. This partial is not returned in particular by any action in any controller. It is called inside another view.</p>
  
  <p>So, I read that using HtmlHelper inside a controller is not good practice. However, if I don't do it, I will have duplicated html (partial view and as a string on this particular action).</p>
  
  <p>What I want is to render a view to a string, allowing me to have the html centralized on the view. Once I have the view rendered as a string, I can return it as an attribute of the json object returned.</p>
  
  <p>As I said, the controllers are in a different project, already referencing <strong>System.Web.Mvc</strong>. But once I type "HtmlHelper." the "Partial" method is not within the options. For some season, even though the System.Web.Mvc.Html.PartialExtensions are within reach, Visual Studio won't let me use it.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a different way to solve this problem without using HtmlHelper inside the controller?</p>
  
  <p>And can Visual Studio filter methods based on where it is going to be used? Or am I missing some reference?</p>
  
  <p>Ps.: I'm using Visual Studio 2010, .Net Framework 4, Asp.Net MVC 4.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>