Question

I have a form using this model:

public class MyModel
{
  public User SalesManager {get;set;}
  public string Title {get;set;}
  ...
}

rendered like this using a DropDown given a list of Users in a HtmlHelper extension:

<label for="SalesManager">Sales Manager</label>
<select id="SalesManager" name="SalesManager">
  <option value="7">James Morrison</option>
  <option selected="selected" value="300">Ray Manzarek</option>
  <option value="302">Robby Krieger</option>
  <option value="302">John Densmore</option>
</select>

and an action like this:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult SomeAction(FormCollection form)
{
  ...
}

I’m getting a validation ModelState error: The value '302' is invalid for the SalesManager property. How can I accept just an int value, and worry about instantiating my User later (in a ModelBinder for example). Or am I just approaching this wrong?

Answer 1

Your HTML should look like this:

<select id="SalesManager_UserId" name="SalesManager.UserId">

because you cannot the value 302 to a complex object such as User.

So the helper should look like this:

<%= Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.User.UserId, Model.PossibleValues) %>