Question

I have a dynamic list of 10-25 strings and would like to present them as checkboxes in an ASP.NET MVC application. What’s the easiest way to do this? Do I have to create a list of ViewModel structures that pair booleans with strings? After a form post, I want to submit the checked values and resolve them to the list of strings again on the server side.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Do I have to create a list of ViewModel structures that pair booleans with strings?

That would indeed be the best way and what I would recommend you:

Model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public string Label { get; set; }
    public bool IsSelected { get; set; }
}

Controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        // Normally that comes from a respotiroy or something
        var model = Enumerable.Range(1, 25).Select(x => new MyViewModel
        {
            Label = "item " + x
        });
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(IEnumerable<MyViewModel> model)
    {
        // TODO: process your model. It will contain a list of all items
        // along with their selected values
        return View(model);
    }
}

View (~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml):

@model IEnumerable<MyViewModel>
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    <table>
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>Name</th>
                <th>Status</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            @Html.EditorForModel()
        </tbody>
    </table>

    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

and finally the editor template which will be rendered for each element of your model (~/Views/Home/EditorTemplates/MyViewModel.cshtml):

@model MyViewModel
<tr>
    <td>
        @Html.LabelFor(x => x.IsSelected, Model.Label)
        @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.Label)
    </td>
    <td>
        @Html.CheckBoxFor(x => x.IsSelected)
    </td>
</tr>