MVC 4 @Scripts “does not exist”

Question

I have just created an ASP.NET MVC 4 project and used Visual Studio 2012 RC to create a Controller and Razor Views for Index and Create Actions.

When I came to run the application, and browsed to the Create view, the following error was shown:

Compiler Error Message: CS0103: The name 'Scripts' does not exist in the current context

The problem is the following code which was added automatically to the bottom of the View:

@section Scripts {
    @Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jqueryval")
}

Why does Scripts not exist?

I looked at the base Web Page class in Assembly System.Web.Mvc.dll, v4.0.0.0

I can see the following helper properties available:

• Ajax
• Html
• Url

But nothing named Scripts.

Any ideas?

EDIT:

My Web.config file looks like this (untouched from the one that Visual Studio created):

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, 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" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

EDIT #2:

People are blogging about using the @Scripts helper:

• SCOTT HANSELMAN Blog
• Codebetter.com

Yet having just installed Visual Studio 2012 RC onto a fresh Windows 8 install I am still unable to use @Scripts even though Visual Studio adds it to the generated View!

Solutions are presented below.

I am not sure how to close this, because in the end an update seemed to resolve the issue. I double checked I had performed a clean install, using a new project. But the same failing project I had made works fine now after various updates and no manual obvious intervention. Thanks for all of the thoughts but there was definitely an issue at the time ;)

Answer 1

@Styles and @Scripts are 2 new helpers provided by System.Web.Optimization library. As the name suggests, they bundle and minify CSS and JavaScript files or resources respectively.

Try including the namespace System.Web.Optimization either by @using directive or through web.config

http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9781449320317/ch_ClientOptimization.html#BundlingAndMinification

UPDATE

Microsoft has moved the bundling/minification to a separate package called Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization. You can download the assembly from nuget.

This post will be useful to you.

Answer 2

I had the same issue:

The System.Web.Optimization version I was using was outdated for MVC4 RC.

I updated my packages using the package manager in VS 2010.

In this MSDN blog, Mr. Andy talks about how to update your MVC 4 Beta project to MVC 4 RC. Updating my packages got the Scripts (particularly the web optimization one) to resolve for me:

To install the latest System.Web.Optimization package, use Package Manager Console (Tools -> Library Package Manager -> Package Manager Console) and run the below command:

Install-Package -IncludePrerelease Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization

Use the System.Web.Optimization file included in the package in your references.

To update other packages: Tools menu -> Library Package Manager -> Manage NuGet Packages for Solution.

Answer 3

I had this issue after I added an Area to a project that didn't have any. To get rid of it just copied the web.config withing root Views folder to the Views folder of the area and it started working.

Answer 4

The key here is to add

 <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" /> 

to BOTH web.config files. My scenario was that I had System.Web.Optimization reference in both project and the main/root web.config but @Scripts still didn't work properly. You need to add the namespace reference to the Views web.config file to make it work.

UPDATE:

Since the release of MVC 4 System.Web.Optimization is now obsolete. If you're starting with a blank solution you will need to install the following nuget package:

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization

You will still need to reference System.Web.Optimization in your web.config files. For more information see this topic:

How to add reference to System.Web.Optimization for MVC-3-converted-to-4 app

As many pointed out, restart of VS could be required after the above steps to make this work.

Answer 5

If you added to your web.config and it still shows message, then you need to close your project and reopen it, now it will exist and @Styles.Render("") and @Scripts.Render() will work fine.

Answer 6

I had the same problem and I used WinMerge to help me track this down. But as I researched it more, I found that Rick has the perfect blog post for it.

Summary:

• Add <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization"/> to both web.config files
• Run Install-Package -IncludePrerelease Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization
• Update Bundling code
• Update Layout file
• The last step is to update 10 other libraries. I didn't and it worked fine. So looks like you can procrastinate this one (unless I already updated 1 or more of them). :)