Question

I’m new in MVC3 and trying learn something. using Razor view engine. mysql database. I have a table where I keep the companies(companyID, companyName, etc.). I have a model with same attributes :

public class CompanyModel{
    public int companyID;
    public string companyName;
    ......
    ....
}

I want to create a dropdownlist which holds the companies, shows me the company name and when I select an item I need to be able to access the companyID. I can query the table and have all rows in a List of companies :

List<Company> companies = new List<Company>();
companies = getCompanies();

but I don’t know how to bind this list with the dropdownlist and how to get the selected value after call of a post method from my controller.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You could use a view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    [DisplayName("Company")]
    public int CompanyId { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Companies { get; set; }
}

and then have your controller action instantiate, populate and pass this view model to the view:

public class CompaniesController: Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        List<Company> companies = getCompanies();

        var model = new MyViewModel();
        model.Companies = companies.Select(x => new SelectListItem
        {
            Value = x.companyID.ToString(),
            Text = x.companyName
        });
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
    {
        // model.CompanyId will contain the selected value here

        return Content(
            string.Format("You have selected company id: {0}", model.CompanyId)
        );
    }
}

and finally a strongly typed view in which you could render an HTML form containing the dropdown list:

@model MyViewModel
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.LabelFor(x => x.CompanyId)
    @Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.CompanyId, Model.Companies)
    <button type="submit">OK</button>
}