Question

Afternoon all.

I have a drop down list in my view

    <div class="editor-label">
                    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.SiteTypeId, "SiteType")
                </div>
                <div class="editor-field">
                    @Html.DropDownList("SiteTypeId", (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>) ViewBag.SiteTypeId)
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.SiteTypeId)
                </div>  

With the model looking like so:

public class SiteType
        {
            [Key]
            public int SiteTypeId { get; set; }
            public string SiteTypeName { get; set; }
        }

Currently there are just the two items in the drop down:

1 (value) - Foo (item)  
2 (value) - Bar (item)

Which appears via the controller a la:

public ActionResult Details(Guid id)
    {
        var model = Model(id);

        ViewBag.SiteTypeId = new SelectList(db.SiteTypes, "SiteTypeId", "SiteTypeName");
        return View(model.Details);
    }

Users will update this accordingly and it will get stored in a database.

I can get the value of the drop down list from the database no problem, but how would I got about effectively binding this value to the list?

Man I feel simple asking this :'(

Any help always appreciated.

Answer 1

Don’t use the same name for the ViewBag parameter containing the SelectList as the first argument of the DropDownList helper:

ViewBag.SiteTypes = new SelectList(db.SiteTypes, "SiteTypeId", "SiteTypeName");

and in the view:

@Html.DropDownList("SiteTypeId", (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.SiteTypes)

Now inside the POST action when this form is submitted the selected value will be passed as a parameter called SiteTypeId.