Question

I am new to MVC, and have a MVC 4 web application and I retrieve a collection of items in the application start(static reference data). I want to display this collection of items when my view loads and loop through it creating links on view, I want to use javascript to inject this information. I found a post where they mention doing it in the view like this

<script type="text/javascript> 
 <%= Model.JavascriptToInsert %> 
</script>

but I am looking for a working example of implementing this approach. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You should serialize your collection to json before you put it to your page.

Use ViewBag to show the data

Controller:

    //Show data with ViewBag
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.DataList = SomeClass.SomeStaticList;
        return View();
    }

View:

<script type="text/javascript">
    var list = <%=Json.Encode(ViewBag.DataList)%>;

    for (var i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
        //do something with your data
    }
</script>

Use strongly-typed view

Controller:

    //Show data with ViewModel
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var model = new TempProject.Models.SampleModel();
        model.ListData = SomeClass.SomeStaticList;
        return View(model);
    }

View:

<%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<TempProject.Models.SampleModel>" %>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var list = <%=Json.Encode(Model.ListData) %>;

    for (var i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
        //do something with your data
    }
</script>