title: ASP.NET MVC: Use Html.Partial or Html.Action?
body: <p>I have a site with a navigation bar defined in the layout. The navigation bar is used in several views of the site and has some dynamic content that is generated from a couple of queries in the Database.</p>
  
  <p>I am wondering what is the best practice to render this menu (defined in a partial view).</p>
  
  <p>As far as I know I can do it in two ways, with some advantages and disadvantages for each one:</p>
  
  <p>Using Html.Action:
   + It's completely independent from the view that is using the layout
   - It adds an extra request to render a section of the page
   - I'm adding an Action method that returns a Partial view that is not called from Ajax.</p>
  
  <p>Using Html.Partial:
   + A simple request to render the entire view
   - Each view model must contain the information required for the navigation bar</p>
  
  <p>I would really appreciate your insights on this since I have several scenarios like this one on my site and I'm not sure which one is the best.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>