Question

I have data posted with my <input type="submit" value ="submit"> which has the following format (checked with firebug)

Role1 true
Role1 false
Role1 true
Role1 false
Name1 "Name 1"
Name2 "Name2"

and in my controller

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult GetPostData(ArrayList data)

the issue is what kind of parameters should i put in the controller to be able to have some kind of data structure which gets filled up with the values sent by post? I don’t want to use FormCollection. I can make some sort of a PostModel, but all these data is sent through hidden fields dynamically generated with jquery in most of the time so I cannot imagine how I can bind the postmodel with the fields.

Answer 1

I guess you meant (as having Role1 four times seems a bit weird):

Role1 true
Role1 false
Role2 true
Role2 false
Name1 "Name 1"
Name2 "Name2"

You could use a view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public bool Role1 { get; set; }
    public bool Role2 { get; set; }
    public string Name1 { get; set; }
    public string Name2 { get; set; }
}

and then:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult GetPostData(MyViewModel model)
{
    ...
}

And since I suspect you are doing checkboxes stuff (due to the double boolean value for each role as the CheckBox helper generates a hidden field), here’s what I will suggest you:

Model:

public class RoleViewModel
{
    public bool IsSelected { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class EditRolesViewModel
{
    public RoleViewModel[] Roles { get; set; }
}

Controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var model = new EditRolesViewModel
        {
            Roles = new[]
            {
                new RoleViewModel { Name = "Role 1", IsSelected = true },
                new RoleViewModel { Name = "Role 2", IsSelected = false },
                new RoleViewModel { Name = "Role 3", IsSelected = true },
            }
        };
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(EditRolesViewModel model)
    {
        return View(model);
    }
}

View:

@model EditRolesViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    for (int i = 0; i < Model.Roles.Length; i++)
    {
        <div>
            @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.Roles[i].Name)
            @Html.LabelFor(x => x.Roles[i].IsSelected, Model.Roles[i].Name)
            @Html.CheckBoxFor(x => x.Roles[i].IsSelected)
        </div>
    }
    <button type="submit">OK</button>
}

or even better, using an editor template which will be rendered for each role:

@model EditRolesViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.EditorFor(x => x.Roles)
    <button type="submit">OK</button>
}

and the editor template (~/Views/Shared/EditorTemplates/RoleViewModel.cshtml):

@model RoleViewModel

<div>
    @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.Name)
    @Html.LabelFor(x => x.IsSelected, Model.Name)
    @Html.CheckBoxFor(x => x.IsSelected)
</div>