Question

I don’t know if I’m missing something obvious, but I really want to grab names of clients associated with a composite key.

Controller Code:

Job job = db.Jobs.Find(id);


            ViewBag.jobClientsList = new SelectList(job.JobClients.ToList(), "ClientNumber", "ClientNumber");

View Code:

<%: Html.DropDownList("ClientNumber", ViewData["JobClientsList"] as SelectList)%>

Model:

namespace Sample.CustomerService.Domain {
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

public class JobClient {
    public JobClient() { }
    [Key]
    [Column(Order = 1)]
    public virtual int JobNumber { get; set; }
    [Key]
    [Column(Order = 1)]
    public virtual int ClientNumber { get; set; }
    public virtual Client Client { get; set; }
    public virtual Job Job { get; set; }
}

}

This code works, but all I get in the dropdownlist is a bunch of numbers. What I would really like is the client names associated with the numbers but I’m really not sure how to do it! I’ve been looking around for ages!

Answer 1

After re-reading your question your answer seems simpler then expected.
Check out the Select list class http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.selectlist.aspx

The constructor your using in your controller is wrong, it should be:

ViewBag.jobClientsList = new SelectList(job.JobClients.ToList(), "ClientNumber", "Client");

You were setting the text value of the selectList to be “ClientNumber” which is why you had a list of numbers and not names!