Question

I am writing a survey app in MVC3.
I have this class (simplified):

public class Survey
{
    public Respondent Respondent { get; set; }
}

And in my View:

@model Survey

// bla bla bla

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)
    @Html.Partial("_Respondent", Model.Respondent) 
}

When I post it back, the survey.Respondent = null 🙁

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Survey(Survey survey)
{
    return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

Simplified code for _Respondednt partial view:

@model Mercer.FITT.Respondent
<fieldset>
    <legend>Respondent Information</legend>
        <table>
            <tr>
                <td>
                    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Name)
                </td>
                <td>
                    @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Name)
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Name)
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>
                    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.JobTitle)
                </td>
                <td>
                    @Html.EditorFor(model => model.JobTitle)
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.JobTitle)
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
</fieldset>

If I get rid of partial view and just copy partial view content into the main view, everything’s fine. Any idea why data is not collected from the partial view?
Maybe I should call the Partial View somehow differently?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Use EditorTemplate instead of partial view

@model Survey  

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)
    @Html.EditorFor(m=>m.Respondent) 
}

and don’t forget to create Respondent.cshtml file in the EditorTemplates folder and put in it the Respondent fields to edit.