Question

I am getting this error when trying to pass my object to the view. I am new to MVC so please forgive me.
The model item passed into the dictionary is of type ‘System.Collections.Generic.List1[<>f__AnonymousType13[System.Int32,System.String,System.Nullable1[System.DateTime]]]', but this dictionary requires a model item of type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable1[MvcApplication1.Models.storageProperty]’

I am trying to pass a list for a table that will show objects from the storageProperty table with the last date (if there is one) from the expenses table. Most properties have had at least one expense audit, some have had many, and others have had none.
Here is the code from the controller:

var viewModel = db.storageProperties.Select(s => new
        {
            s.storagePropertyId,
            s.BuildName,
            latestExpenseSurvey = (DateTime?)s.expenses.Max(e => e.expenseDate)
        }).ToList();
        return View(viewModel); 

         }

and the @model statement in the view calls for a storageproperty object. I am using mvc3 with the entity framework. It appears obvious that I cannot pass this list object in place of the storageproperty object, but I can’t figure out what to do instead, how should I do this?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Never pass anonymous objects to views. You should always pass view models.

So as always in an ASP.NET MVC application you start by defining a view model which will reflect the requirements of your view:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public int StoragePropertyId { get; set; }
    public string BuildName { get; set; }
    public DateTime? latestExpenseSurvey { get; set; }
}

Then in your controller return an IEnumerable<MyViewModel>:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var viewModel = db.storageProperties.Select(s => new MyViewModel
    {
        StoragePropertyId = s.storagePropertyId,
        BuildName = s.BuildName,
        LatestExpenseSurvey = (DateTime?)s.expenses.Max(e => e.expenseDate)
    }).ToList();
    return View(viewModel); 
}

and finally strongly type your view to a collection of this view model:

@model IEnumerable<MyViewModel>
<div>
    @Html.EditorForModel()
</div>