MVC3 Views unable to find added referenced class

Question

My view is having issues finding a class located in one of my references. This reference is to a dll built outside of the project.

The view always gives error:

The type or namespace name 'Company' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference)

Here is the controller. No issues there.

using Company.Entities;

public ActionResult Find()
{
    Person test = Person.SelectByADDistinguishedName("L*", false);
    return View(test);
}

Here is the View. The error occurs in the @Model line.

@model Company.Entities.Person

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Bob";
}

<h2>Find</h2>

My Views/Web.config currently looks like this

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="Company.Entities" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

I've checked similar threads like this one but to no avail.

Here is the message on the screen

Line 25:     using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
Line 26:     using System.Web.Routing;
Line 27:     using Company.Entities;
Line 28:     
Line 29:     


Source File: c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET

Files\root\49c9c7db\1f9dd5c8\App_Web_find.cshtml.a8d08dba.xro6gxci.0.cs Line: 27

If I strip out any mention of the assembly (out of web.config - no @using statments). I get the same error message when loaded but against this line

public class _Page_Views_Home_Find_cshtml : System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage<Company.Entities.Person> {

Answer 1

After working it with it for awhile, I ended up solving it.

I had to add the assembly under the assemblies section of the main web.config (not the one under the views)

Sample of the web.config.

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0">
  <assemblies>
    <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="Company, Version=2.0.31.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=df9010405db60e6d"/>
  </assemblies>
</compilation>

Thanks for people who gave me suggestions.

Answer 2

Adding the reference

before where you use your control, in .cshtml file works. Example:

@model IEnumerable<MyApp.Models.MyModel>
@using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

But you can put it in web.config, under namespaces tag. This way it is global to all views. Also, there is no need to specify the version:

<namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" />
</namespaces>

Answer 3

Be sure to check your views directory for an additional web.config file. I seem to remember running into a similar problem because I hadn't updated the correct web.config. YMMV.