Question

I have a big problem, at least for me.
I have a Table with categories and unlimited subcategories.
The table looks like this:

ID Parent_ID Name

1 null riding

2 1 gallopa

3 null figure

4 2 trapper

And there is a table containing items wich are attributed to a category.
The table looks like this:

ID cattegory_ID Name

1 4 fast

2 1 slow

3 3 high

4 2 low

Now I want to retrieve them from the database and show them in my mvc2 application like this:
A Fieldset for the first category, and one for the subcategory in the fieldset before. The items should be listed in the fieldset with checkboxes.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/lyMWD.png

I like to work with @Html.CheckBoxfor.

Has any one got any idea? I’m working on this problem since last week without a result.
I tried to solve the problem recursively but it did not work.
An example would be beautiful, thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot for your answer!
Everything works fine! But how to do a Httppost with this model? And how to get the Status Checked or not Checked of every checkbox?

here is my start:

   [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult CreateNewHorse(NewHorseModel collection)
    {
      collection.Cattegories.Count(); <------------is always null! Why?
    }

Answer 1

You could create a PartialView that has the Category-class as a Model, something like this:

Category.cshtml

@model Category

<fieldset>
    <legend>@Model.Name</legend>
    @foreach (var item in Model.Choices)
    {
        Html.RenderPartial("Choice", item);
    }

    @foreach(var item in Model.Subcategories)
    {
        Html.RenderPartial("Category", item);
    }
</fieldset>

Choice.cshtml

@model StackOverflow_Tester.Models.Choice

<p>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Selected) @Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.Selected)</p>

in your main view, you’d simply render the partialview based on the categories:

@foreach (var item in Model)
{
    Html.RenderPartial("Category", item);
}

Now you need to pass only the root categories into your view

This should give you a recursive view with categories and/or subcategories.

UPDATE

The viewmodel/model could look like this:

Category.cs

public class Category
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public List<Category> Subcategories { get; set; }
    public List<Choice> Choices { get; set; }
    public Category Parent { get; set; }
}

Choice.cs

public class Choice
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool Selected { get; set; }
}

I’ve updated the code in the top as well, to reflect this Model

Hope this helps!