I have a pretty standard scenario where I have a model which in this case is a product.
The product model has a load of properties such as price, desc etc which I want to display on a view.
I have this working fine.
The product has a list of accessories objects which get displayed on the view and gives the user the ability to enter a qty for that accessory.
When the user clicks add to basket I only actually need the list of accessories and the id of the parent product.
Should I be creating a view model that contains all the product info I need or do I just pass my view the product and then on submit just get a view model for the few fields that I need in the signature of the function?
I’m new to mvc in case you hadn’t guessed!! and I am using MVC 3.
Using a separate view model is better practice as it means you can add extra information outside of the Product which may be relevant such as Basket and User info. If you have many fields on the product then you can use Automapper to take the relevant fields and map them to the view model. Also you can flatten the model if necessary and make serverside queries which fecth all of the model’s related items such as Category info etc.
Take a look at Automapper here:
http://lostechies.com/jimmybogard/2009/01/23/automapper-the-object-object-mapper/
once you start using it you won’t look back.