Question

I have two pages, one that edits user information, and one that edits information in a pictures table. I recently stopped using strongly typed viewmodels due to the varying types of data required on each page.

The page that edits the user information works fine, but the page that edits picture information does not post back any of the edits that are made in the input fields; except for the ID, which is correct, all the other values come back as null. They both seem to be structured exactly the same way — I can’t figure out what’s the difference. As far as I can tell the code for both pages are the same, but I’m not getting data back on the second one.

User Controller and View which works

Controller

public ActionResult Preferences()
{
    int userid = getUserID(User.Identity.Name);  

    // Info for user preferences
    var accountInfo = db.users.Single(l => l.ID == userid);  

    ViewData["accountInfo"] = accountInfo;

    AccountController usr = new AccountController(); // Info for user menu
    ViewData["userInfo"] = usr.getUserInfo(User.Identity.Name);

     return View();
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Preferences(user accountInfo, string oldPW)
{
    // Do stuff to save user info
    return RedirectToAction(actionname, routeValues);
}

View

@using (Html.BeginForm("Preferences", null, FormMethod.Post, 
                                            new { id = "prefsform" }))
{
AutoShowApp_MVC.user item = new AutoShowApp_MVC.user();
item = ViewBag.accountInfo;

<input id="lastname" name="lastname" type="text" value="@item.lastname"/>
<input id="address1" name="address1" type="text" value="@item.address1"/>
<input id="city" name="city" type="text" value="@item.city"/>
<input id="state" name="state" type="text" value="@item.state"/>
<input type="submit" value="Submit Changes"  />

}

Picture Controller and View which DON’T work

Controller:

public ActionResult Edit(long id)
{
    var picInfo = db.lmit_pics.Single(l => l.ID == id);
    ViewData["picInfo"] = picInfo; // get Picture Info

    // Get User Info for menu
    AccountController usr = new AccountController(); 
    ViewData["userInfo"] = usr.getUserInfo(User.Identity.Name);

    return View();
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Edit(lmit_pics picInfo)
{
    // Do stuff to save picInfo
    return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

View:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Edit", null, FormMethod.Post, new { id = "editform" }))
{
    AutoShowApp_MVC.lmit_pics item = new AutoShowApp_MVC.lmit_pics();
    item = ViewBag.picInfo;
    <input type="text" id="model" value="@item.model" />
    <input type="text" id="description" value="@item.description" />
    <input type="submit" value="Save" /> 
}

Answer 1

You do not have the name attribute specified on the inputs on your picture editing form.

<input type="text" id="model" value="@item.model" />

Should Be

<input type="text" id="model" name="model" value="@item.model" />

The form collection works from the name attribute, not the Id attribute which is why you are not getting any data back (you are, it is just not properly attributed).

However, I agree with Wahid above, using strongly typed view models, editorFor helpers, etc not only help to prevent issues such as the above, but really go a long way in making a more secure, easier to maintain site.