On my website I want the user to have the ability to login/logout from any page. When the user select login button a modal dialog will be present to the user for him to enter in his credentials.

Since login will be on every page, I thought I would create a partial view for the login and add it to the layout page. But when I did this I got the following error: Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: Duration must be a positive number.

There are other ways to work around this that would not using partial views, but I believe this should work.

So to test this, I decided to make everything simple with the following code:

Created a layout page with the following code

@{Html.RenderAction("_Login", "Account");}

In the AccountController:

public ActionResult _Login()
{
    return PartialView("_Login");
}

Partial View _Login

<a id="signin">Login</a>

But when I run this simple version this I still get this error: Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: Duration must be a positive number.

Source of error points to "@{Html.RenderAction("_Login", "Account");}"

There are some conversations on the web that are similar to my problem, which identifies this as bug with MVC (see links below). But the links pertain to Caching, and I'm not doing any caching.

OuputCache Cache Profile does not work for child actions
http://aspnet.codeplex.com/workitem/7923

Asp.Net MVC 3 Partial Page Output Caching Not Honoring Config Settings Asp.Net MVC 3 Partial Page Output Caching Not Honoring Config Settings

Caching ChildActions using cache profiles won't work? Caching ChildActions using cache profiles won't work?

I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I'll go ahead and add it here. I'm using MVC 3 with Razor.

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Update
Stack Trace

[InvalidOperationException: Duration must be a positive number.] System.Web.Mvc.OutputCacheAttribute.ValidateChildActionConfiguration() +624394 System.Web.Mvc.OutputCacheAttribute.OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) +127 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodFilter(IActionFilter filter, ActionExecutingContext preContext, Func1 continuation) +72 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodFilter(IActionFilter filter, ActionExecutingContext preContext, Func1 continuation) +784922 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList1 filters, ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor, IDictionary2 parameters) +314 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName) +784976 System.Web.Mvc.Controller.ExecuteCore() +159 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +335 System.Web.Mvc.<>c_DisplayClassb.b_5() +62 System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c_DisplayClass1.b_0() +20 System.Web.Mvc.<>c_DisplayClasse.b_d() +54 System.Web.Mvc.<>c_DisplayClass4.b_3() +15 System.Web.Mvc.ServerExecuteHttpHandlerWrapper.Wrap(Func`1 func) +41 System.Web.HttpServerUtility.ExecuteInternal(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm, Boolean setPreviousPage, VirtualPath path, VirtualPath filePath, String physPath, Exception error, String queryStringOverride) +1363

[HttpException (0x80004005): Error executing child request for handler 'System.Web.Mvc.HttpHandlerUtil+ServerExecuteHttpHandlerAsyncWrapper'.] System.Web.HttpServerUtility.ExecuteInternal(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm, Boolean setPreviousPage, VirtualPath path, VirtualPath filePath, String physPath, Exception error, String queryStringOverride) +2419 System.Web.HttpServerUtility.Execute(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm, Boolean setPreviousPage) +275 System.Web.HttpServerUtilityWrapper.Execute(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm) +94 System.Web.Mvc.Html.ChildActionExtensions.ActionHelper(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, TextWriter textWriter) +838 System.Web.Mvc.Html.ChildActionExtensions.RenderAction(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues) +56 ASP._Page_Views_Shared_SiteLayout_cshtml.Execute() in c:\Projects\Odat Projects\Odat\Source\Presentation\Odat.PublicWebSite\Views\Shared\SiteLayout.cshtml:80 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy() +280 System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy() +104 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage) +173 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.Write(HelperResult result) +89 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.RenderSurrounding(String partialViewName, Action1 body) +234 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.PopContext() +234 System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +384 System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__19() +33 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func1 continuation) +784900 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func1 continuation) +784900 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +265 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName) +784976 System.Web.Mvc.Controller.ExecuteCore() +159 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +335 System.Web.Mvc.<>c_DisplayClassb.b_5() +62 System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c_DisplayClass1.b_0() +20 System.Web.Mvc.<>c_DisplayClasse.b_d() +54 System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +453 System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +371

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Update
When I Break in Code, it errors at @{Html.RenderAction("_Login", "Account");} with the following exception. The inner exception Error executing child request for handler 'System.Web.Mvc.HttpHandlerUtil+ServerExecuteHttpHandlerAsyncWrapper'.

at System.Web.HttpServerUtility.ExecuteInternal(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm, Boolean setPreviousPage, VirtualPath path, VirtualPath filePath, String physPath, Exception error, String queryStringOverride) at System.Web.HttpServerUtility.Execute(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm, Boolean setPreviousPage) at System.Web.HttpServerUtilityWrapper.Execute(IHttpHandler handler, TextWriter writer, Boolean preserveForm) at System.Web.Mvc.Html.ChildActionExtensions.ActionHelper(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, TextWriter textWriter) at System.Web.Mvc.Html.ChildActionExtensions.RenderAction(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues) at ASP._Page_Views_Shared_SiteLayout_cshtml.Execute() in c:\Projects\Odat Projects\Odat\Source\Presentation\Odat.PublicWebSite\Views\Shared\SiteLayout.cshtml:line 80 at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy() at System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy() at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage) at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.Write(HelperResult result) at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.RenderSurrounding(String partialViewName, Action1 body) at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.PopContext() at System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__19() at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func1 continuation)

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Answer Thanks Darin Dimitrov

Come to find out, my AccountController had the following attribute

[System.Web.Mvc.OutputCache(NoStore =true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "*")].

I don't believe this should caused a problem, but when I removed the attribute everything worked.

BarDev