title: nullreferenceexception when accessing ViewData
body: <p><strong>Controller</strong><br /></p>
  
  <pre><code>    public class DashboardController : Controller
      {
          //
          // GET: /Dashboard/
  
          public ActionResult Index()
          {
              ViewData["PartnerID"] = GetPartnerID();
              return View();
          }
  
          public ActionResult OutboundTransfers()
          {
              var partnerId = ViewData["PartnerID"].ToString();//NULL EXCEPTION
              InventoryEntities context = new InventoryEntities();
              var result = context.GetOutboundTransfers(partnerId);
              //var result = context.GetOutboundTransfers("3000017155");
  
              return View(result);
          }
  
          private static string GetPartnerID()
          {
              return "3000017155";
          }
  
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>View (Dashboard/Index)</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server"&gt;
  
      &lt;h2&gt;Index&lt;/h2&gt;
      &lt;%= Html.Action("OutboundTransfers")%&gt;
  &lt;/asp:Content&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am a beginner to MVC 2.  I read the ViewData should be accessible to the partial view (OutboundTranfers.ascx) as a copy.  So, why do I get a null reference here?</p>