Hi,
I'm 3 days into learning MVC for a new project and i've managed to stumble my way over the multitude of issues I've come across - mainly about something as simple as moving data to a view and back into the controller in a type-safe (and manageable) manner. This is the latest.
I've seen this reported before but nothing advised has seemed to work. I have a complex view model:
public class IndexViewModel : ApplicationViewModel
{
public SearchFragment
Search { get; private set; }
public IndexViewModel()
{
this.
Search = new SearchFragment();
}
}
public class SearchFragment
{
public string ItemId { get; set; }
public string Identifier { get; set; }
}
This maps to (the main Index page):
%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<IndexViewModel>" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<% Html.BeginForm("
Search", AvailableControllers.
Search, FormMethod.Post); %>
<div id="
search">
<% Html.RenderPartial("SearchControl", Model.Search); %>
</div>
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
</asp:Content>
and a UserControl:
<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<SearchFragment>" %>
<p>
<label for="itemId">
<%= Html.Resource("ItemId") %></label>
<%= Html.TextBox("itemId", Model.ItemId)%>
</p>
<p>
<label for="title">
<%= Html.Resource("Title") %></label>
<%= Html.TextBox("identifier", Model.Identifier)%>
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" value="<%= Html.Resource("
Search") %>" name="
search" />
</p>
This is returned to the following method:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Search(IndexViewModel viewModel)
{
....
}
My problem is that when the view model is rehydrated from the View into the ViewModel, the SearchFragment elements are null. I suspect this is because the default model binder doesn't realise the HTML ItemId and Identifier elements rendered inline in the View map to the SearchFragment class. When I have two extra properties (ItemId and Identifier) in the IndexViewModel, the values are bound correctly.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, I must use the SearchFragment as I need this to strongly type the
Search UserControl... as the control can be used anywhere it can operate under any parent view.
I really don't want to make it use "magic strings". There's too much of that going on already IMO.
I've tried prefixing the HTML with "
Search." in the hope that the model binder would recognise "
Search.ItemId" and match to the IndexViewModel "
Search" property and the ItemId within it, but this doesn't work.
I fear I'm going to have to write my own ModelBinder to do this, but surely this must be something you can do out-of-the-box??
Failing that is there any other suggestions (or link to someone who has already done this?)
Here's hoping....
