title: ASP.NET MVC: How to covert an ActionResult to string?
body: <p>I would like to take an existing action method, render its return value to a string and ship it as a JSON for a response to an AJAX request. </p>
  
  <p>To do this, I need to render an ActionResult to a string. How do i do this?</p>
  
  <p>We have the opposite where we can convert a string to an ActionResult by using this.Content().</p>
  
  <p><B>Update</B></p>
  
  <p>The existing and 1st action method returns a type ActionResult but it really returns a ViewResult to respond to HTTP post request. I have a 2nd action method (my facade) that returns a JsonResult that responds to AJAX requests. I want this 2nd action method to use the 1st action method to render the HTML. </p>
  
  <p>In the grand scheme of things, I want an ActionResult (generated from an action method) retrievable not only by a standard HTTP post, but also by an AJAX request via a facade action method (the 2nd action method). This way, I, as a developer, have the choice of using an HTTP Post or AJAX to retrieve the rendering of a page.</p>
  
  <p>Sorry i tried to make this update as short as possible. Thanks.</p>