asp.net mvc login form in layout page (The partial view 'LogIn' was not found)

Question

In Asp.net MVC I have a login form on top of all pages (in _Layout page) and I put my login form in a PartialView as _Login in Shared Folder like this:

@model MyProject.ViewModels.LogInModel
<div id="popover-head" class="hide">Login</div>
<div id="popover-content" class="hide">
    @using (Ajax.BeginForm("LogIn", "Account", new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "login" }))
    {
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.UserName, new { @class = "input-block-level", placeholder = "username" })    
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.UserName)    

        @Html.PasswordFor(m => m.Password, new { @class = "input-block-level", placeholder = "password" })
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Password)

        <input type="submit" name="login" value="login" class="btn btn-primary" />

        @Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.RememberMe)
        @Html.LabelFor(m => m.RememberMe)
    }
</div>

and in my _Layout page:

<a id="popover" href="#" class="btn" data-toggle="popover" data-placement="bottom">Login</a>    
 <div id="login">
    @Html.Partial("_LogIn")                     
 </div>

and AccountController contains:

[HttpPost]
    public ActionResult LogIn(LogInModel model, string returnUrl)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            if (MembershipService.ValidateUser(model.UserName, model.Password))
            {

                FormsService.SignIn(model.UserName, model.RememberMe);
                if (Url.IsLocalUrl(returnUrl) && returnUrl.Length > 1 && returnUrl.StartsWith("/")
                    && !returnUrl.StartsWith("//") && !returnUrl.StartsWith("/\\"))
                {
                    return Redirect(returnUrl);
                }                    

                return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
            }
            ModelState.AddModelError("", "login failed");
        }

        return PartialView(model);
    }

When ModelState is not valid I get this error in browser:

The partial view 'LogIn' was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations

What is the problem with Controller? How can I return just _Login partialview in _Layout page on this line? :

return PartialView(model);

Answer 1

for returning a partial view you need to specify the partial view name. on your view you have the partial as _LogIn but on your controller you leave it as the default so it is looking for Login. Try changing your controller to

return PartialView("_LogIn", model);

Answer 2

u must name your partial view as ur method

@Html.Partial(_login)

and at the Controller

public ActionResult _login(...)
{
....
return PartialView(model);
}

or you can name them differently but ur Controller will be like that

public ActionResult Login(...)
{
... 
return PartialView("_login",model);
}

Answer 3

Because my _Layout page just has a model and I want to redirect to same page if form requires validation, so I used this line in my Controller:

return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");

instead of returning PartialView as return PartialView("_LogIn", model);

thanks to all.