Create Views for object properties in model in MVC 3 application?
- by Anders Svensson
I have an Asp.Net MVC 3 application with a database "Consultants", accessed by EF. Now, the Consultant table in the db has a one-to-many relationship to several other tables for CV type information (work experience, etc). So a user should be able to fill in their name etc once, but should be able to add a number of "work experiences", and so on.
But these foreign key tables are complex objects in the model, and when creating the Create View I only get the simple properties as editor fields. How do I go about designing the View or Views so that the complex objects can be filled in as well? I picture a View in my mind where the simple properties are simple fields, and then some sort of control where you can click "add work experience", and as many as needed would be added. But how would I do that and still utilize the model binding? In fact, I don't know how to go about it at all. (BTW, Program and Language stand for things like software experience in general, and natural language competence, not programming languages, in case you're wondering about the relationships there).
Any ideas greatly appreciated!
Here's the Create View created by the add View command by default:
@{
ViewBag.Title = "Create";
}
<h2>Create</h2>
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
@using (Html.BeginForm()) {
@Html.ValidationSummary(true)
<fieldset>
<legend>Consultant</legend>
<div class="editor-label">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.FirstName)
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FirstName)
</div>
<div class="editor-label">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.LastName)
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.LastName)
</div>
<div class="editor-label">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.UserName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.UserName)
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.UserName)
</div>
<div class="editor-label">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.Description)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.Description)
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Description)
</div>
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Create" />
</p>
</fieldset>
}
<div>
@Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index")
</div>
And here's the EF database diagram:
