Question

I have a Model defined that gets me a View with a list of RadioButtons, per IEnumerable.

Within that Model, I want to display a list of checkboxes that will vary based on the item selected. Finally, there will be a Textarea in the same view once the user has selected from the available checkboxes, with some dynamic text there based on the CheckBoxes that are selected. What we should end up with is a Table-per-hierarchy.

The layout is such that the RadioButtonList is in the first table cell, the CheckBoxList is in the middle table cell, and the Textarea is ini the right table cell.

If anyone can guide me to what my model-view should be to achieve this result, I’ll be most pleased…

Here are my codes:

//
// View Model for implementing radio button list

public class RadioButtonViewModel
{
    // objects
    public List<RadioButtonItem> RadioButtonList { get; set; }
    public string SelectedRadioButton { get; set; }
}

//
// Object for handling each radio button

public class RadioButtonItem
{
    // this object
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool Selected { get; set; }
    public int ObjectId { get; set; }
    // columns
    public virtual IEnumerable<CheckBoxItem> CheckBoxItems { get; set; }
}

//
// Object for handling each checkbox

public class CheckBoxViewModel
{
    public List<CheckBoxItem> CheckBoxList { get; set; }
}

//
// Object for handling each check box

public class CheckBoxItem
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool Selected { get; set; }
    public int ObjectId { get; set; }
    public virtual RadioButtonItem RadioButtonItem { get; set; }
}

and the view

@model IEnumerable<EF_Utility.Models.RadioButtonItem>

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Connect";
    ViewBag.Selected = Request["name"] != null ? Request["name"].ToString() : "";
}

@using (Html.BeginForm("Objects" , "Home", FormMethod.Post) ){

@Html.ValidationSummary(true)

<table>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td style="border: 1px solid grey; vertical-align:top;">

                <table>
                    <tbody>
                        <tr>
                            <th style="text-align:left; width: 50px;">Select</th>
                            <th style="text-align:left;">View or Table Name</th>
                        </tr>
                        @{
                        foreach (EF_Utility.Models.RadioButtonItem item in @Model )
                        {
                        <tr>
                            <td>
                                @Html.RadioButton("RadioButtonViewModel.SelectedRadioButton", 
                                    item.Name, 
                                    ViewBag.Selected == item.Name ? true : item.Selected, 
                                    new { @onclick = "this.form.action='/Home/Connect?name=" + item.Name + "'; this.form.submit(); " })
                            </td>
                            <td>
                                @Html.DisplayFor(i => item.Name)
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                        }
                        }
                    </tbody>
                </table>

            </td>
            <td style="border: 1px solid grey; width: 220px; vertical-align:top; @(ViewBag.Selected == "" ? "display:none;" : "")">

                <table>
                    <tbody>
                        <tr>
                            <th>Column
                            </th>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td><!-- checkboxes will go here -->
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                    </tbody>
                </table>

            </td>
            <td style="border: 1px solid grey; vertical-align:top; @(ViewBag.Selected == "" ? "display:none;" : "")">
                <textarea name="output" id="output" rows="24" cols="48"></textarea>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
}

and the relevant controller

public ActionResult Connect() 
    {
        /* TEST SESSION FIRST*/ 
        if(  Session["connstr"] == null)
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        else
        {
            ViewBag.Message = "";
            ViewBag.ConnectionString = Server.UrlDecode( Session["connstr"].ToString() );
            ViewBag.Server = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Data Source" );
            ViewBag.Database = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Initial Catalog" );

            using( var db = new SysDbContext(ViewBag.ConnectionString))
            {
                var objects = db.Set<SqlObject>().ToArray();

                var model = objects
                    .Select( o => new RadioButtonItem { Name = o.Name, Selected = false, ObjectId = o.Object_Id, CheckBoxItems = Enumerable.Empty<EF_Utility.Models.CheckBoxItem>() } )
                    .OrderBy( rb => rb.Name );

                return View( model );
            }
        }
    }

What I am missing it seems, is the code in my Connect() method that will bring the data context forward; at that point, it should be fairly straight-forward to set up the Html for the View.

EDIT
** So I am going to need to bind the RadioButtonItem to the view with something like the following, except my CheckBoxList will NOT be an empty set.

    //
    // POST: /Home/Connect/

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Connect( RadioButtonItem rbl )
    {
        /* TEST SESSION FIRST*/
        if ( Session["connstr"] == null )
            return RedirectToAction( "Index" );
        else
        {
            ViewBag.Message = "";
            ViewBag.ConnectionString = Server.UrlDecode( Session["connstr"].ToString() );
            ViewBag.Server = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Data Source" );
            ViewBag.Database = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Initial Catalog" );

            using ( var db = new SysDbContext( ViewBag.ConnectionString ) )
            {
                var objects = db.Set<SqlObject>().ToArray();

                var model = objects
                    .Select( o => new RadioButtonItem { Name = o.Name, Selected = false, ObjectId = o.Object_Id, CheckBoxItems = Enumerable.Empty<EF_Utility.Models.CheckBoxItem>() } )
                    .OrderBy( rb => rb.Name );

                return View( model );
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

Here is what I ended up needing to do:

Define a new Controller Method to handle the post back with the relevant Model class, and process the nested related Checkboxes with this in the View:

    @Html.Raw(ViewBag.TextBoxes)

I also renamed the class for from ‘RadioButtonItem’ to ‘TableOrViewItem’ for clarity.
Here’s the Controller method I addeed:

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Connect( TableOrViewItem rbl )
    {
        /* TEST SESSION FIRST*/
        if ( Session["connstr"] == null )
            return RedirectToAction( "Index" );
        else
        {
            ViewBag.Message = "";
            ViewBag.ConnectionString = Server.UrlDecode( Session["connstr"].ToString() );
            ViewBag.Server = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Data Source" );
            ViewBag.Database = ParseConnectionString( ViewBag.ConnectionString, "Initial Catalog" );
            ViewBag.Selected = Request["name"] != null ? Request["name"].ToString() : "";
            ViewBag.ObjectID = Request["id"] != null ? Request["id"].ToString() : "";

            using ( var dbo = new SqlObjectContext( ViewBag.ConnectionString ) )
            {

                // obtain this item's objectid
                string CurrentObjectId = Request["id"].ToString();
                int CurrentID = StringToInt( CurrentObjectId );

                // populate Checkbox Area

                var rawColumns = dbo.Set<SqlColumn>()
                    .Where( column => column.ObjectId == CurrentID )
                    .OrderBy( o => o.ColumnId )
                    .ToList();

                string htmlColumns = string.Empty;

                foreach ( EF_Utility.Models.SqlColumn item in rawColumns )
                {
                    htmlColumns += "<input checked=\"checked\" id=\"RadioButtonViewModel_CheckBox" 
                        + item.ColumnId + "\" name=\"CheckBox_" + item.ColumnId 
                        + "\" type=\"checkbox\" value=\"" + item.Name + "\">" 
                        + item.Name + " <br>";
                }
                if(! string.IsNullOrEmpty(htmlColumns))
                {
                    htmlColumns += "<br /><center><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Generate\" name=\"btnGenerate\" id=\"btnGenerate\" /></center>";
                    htmlColumns += "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"id\" value=\"" + CurrentObjectId + "\" />";
                    htmlColumns += "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"name\" value=\"" + ViewBag.Selected + "\" />";
                }

                ViewBag.TextBoxes = htmlColumns;

                /*var ColumnItemList = columns
                    .Select( c => new ColumnItem { Name = c.Name, Selected = true, ObjectId = c.ObjectId } )
                    .Where( tvi => tvi.ObjectId == CurrentID );
                */

                // Check to see if the user wants the list generated

                if(Request["btnGenerate"] != null)
                {
                    string sNewLine = System.Environment.NewLine;
                    string htmlText = "[Table( \"" + ViewBag.Selected +"\" )]" + sNewLine +
                        "public class " + POCOFormated( ViewBag.Selected ) + sNewLine + "{";
                    string tempColumn = string.Empty;
                    string tempName = string.Empty;

                    foreach(string key in Request.Form)
                    {
                        if(!key.StartsWith("CheckBox_")) continue;

                        tempName = POCOFormated( Request.Form[key] );
                        htmlText = htmlText +
                            sNewLine + "\t" +
                            "public " + "...fieldtype..." + " " + tempName.Trim() + " { get; set; }" +
                            sNewLine; 
                    }                       
                    htmlText = htmlText + sNewLine + "}";

                    ViewBag.TextArea = htmlText;
                }

                var objects = dbo.Set<SqlObject>().ToArray();

                var model = objects
                    .Select( o => new TableOrViewItem { Name = o.Name, Selected = false, ObjectId = o.ObjectId } )
                    .OrderBy( rb => rb.Name );


                return View( model );
            }
        }
    }