title: global variable in asp-net mvc views
body: <p>In my web application I placed the menu on a partial view and load it from the Site.Master.</p>
  
  <p>Now imagine a gmail like scenario where on your menu you'll have an Inbox(n) item where n is the number of unreaded mails. Is there a clean way to pass the n variable to all of the views that use the Site.Master masterpage?</p>
  
  <p>Something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%: Html.ActionLink("Inbox - " + ViewData["n"], "Index", "Home") %&gt;
  </code></pre>