Question

I have two independent classes that model my tables. First when a new user is created, the user does not have a record in the certificate tables. So in the view for the certificates I have added a button to add certificates details for this new user.
This is my code for the user view: I omitted the paging/search and filter code to make it simple

public ActionResult Index()
var recipients = from s in db.User
                         select s;
 return View(recipients.ToList());

This is the details view showing related data:

   public ViewResult Details(int id)
   {

   var certificateDetails = db.Certificate.Where(p => p.ID == id);
   return View(certificateDetails);
   }

Adding a new user means also adding a new certificates details. I want when a user clicks details for the a particular user if those details aint around to be redirected to a create certificate view with both User.ID and CertificateID set. In fact CertificateID is AI but ID from User is foreign key.
I would have used Fluent API but am not good with it either so have to handle this seemingly small challenge in code.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you want it so that when you view Details(), if the certificate details don’t exist, then redirect to a page to create them?

Just check whether or not the entity exists. If it doesn’t, return a RedirectToAction() and pass whatever data you need in the route data collection.

public ViewResult Details(int id)
{
    var certificateDetails = db.Certificate.FirstOrDefault(p => p.ID == id);

    if (certificateDetails == null)
        return RedirectToAction("Create", "Certificate", new { userId = id });

    return View(certificateDetails);
}

You’ll also need to create a Certificate controller with a Create() action.