Question

I have created a ViewModel called DashboardViewModel:

public class DashboardViewModel
{        
    public Hardware Hardware { get; set; }
    public Software Software { get; set; }      
}

I am passing the ViewModel to the view in my ActionResult. But I need to pass other things too. Here is my ActionResult:

public ActionResult Index()
{

    HardwareType hwt = new HardwareType { HType = "PC" };
    IEnumerable<Hardware> Pcs = db.Hardware.Where(h => h.HardwareType.Contains(hwt));

    DashboardViewModel dvm = new DashboardViewModel();   

    return View(dvm);
}

How do I pass Pcs to the view if I am already passing dvm? I don’t even know if this is the right approach. What I am trying to accomplish is to create navigation on the page. So not only will I have PCs, but I’ll have monitors and printers to pass to the view, as well as software. Here is my hardware class:

public class Hardware
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<DeviceType> Type { get; set; }
    public string AssetTagId { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Manufacturer> Manufacturer { get; set; }
    [Required]
    [StringLength(50)]
    public string ServiceTagId { get; set; }
    [Required]
    [StringLength(50)]
    public string SerialNumber { get; set; }
    [Required]
    [StringLength(75)]
    public string ProductNumber { get; set; }
    // [Required]
    [StringLength(20)]
    public string PurchaseDate { get; set; }
    [StringLength(20)]
    public string WarrantyExpiration { get; set; }
    [Required]
    [StringLength(20)]
    public string WarrantyType { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Location> Location { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<HardwareType> HardwareType { get; set; }
    [Required]
    [StringLength(2000)]
    public string Notes { get; set; }
    public string POATag { get; set; }
}

What is the best approach for what I want to do (creating the navigation with various categories of hardware and software)? I’m new to MVC and am trying to follow suggestions on what to do, but I could use a higher level approach as maybe I’m going about this all wrong. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can put your Pcs in ViewBag or ViewData as below:

public ActionResult Index()
{

    HardwareType hwt = new HardwareType { HType = "PC" };
    IEnumerable<Hardware> Pcs = db.Hardware.Where(h => h.HardwareType.Contains(hwt));
    ViewBag.Pcs=Pcs;//or ViewData["Pcs"]=Pcs;

    DashboardViewModel dvm = new DashboardViewModel();   

    return View(dvm);
}

ViewBag is the dynamic object. You can add anything to it. With any name e.g. yous Pcs can also be stored in ViewBag as ViewBag.AnyNameYouLike=Pcs;

**RAZOR SYNTAX:**

Just apply loop and you are done.

@foreach(var pc in ViewBag.Pcs)
{
  @pc.Id;//Will give you id

}

You can loop through all properties like this