Question

I’m learning about ViewModels in C# ASP.NET MVC 3, and I’m stuck at displaying data from the ViewModel in my View.

The Models:

public class Author
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Book> Books { get; set; }
}

public class Book
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int AuthorId { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

In my Index View I want to show general lists of both Authors and Books. I have made a ViewModel for this:

public class BookIndexViewModel
{
    public List<Book> Books { get; set; }
    public List<Author> Authors { get; set; }
}

Here is my Index() action method from the controller:

public ViewResult Index()
    {
        BookIndexViewModel viewModel = new BookIndexViewModel();
        viewModel.Authors = db.Authors.ToList();

        // leaving Books empty for now

        return View(viewModel);        
    }

I have a strongly typed Index View where I want to show the list of Authors:

@model IEnumerable<NewBookStore.ViewModels.BookIndexViewModel>

@foreach (var author in Model.Authors) {
<tr>
    <td>
        @author.Name
    </td>
</tr> 
}

It’s the Model.Authors part that doesn’t work. When I type Model. and wait for IntelliSense to show Authors, it isn’t listed. The error description is:

‘System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable’ does not contain a definition for ‘Authors’ and no extension method ‘Authors’ accepting a first argument of type ‘System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable’ could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Answer 1

the model in the view shouldnt be IEnumerable. You are sending a single model which has 2 lists in it. You are not sending a list of viewmodels.