Question

I’m rendering a dropdownlist that has an integer value and the SelectListItem value attribute only accepts a string thus the need for conversion. .ToString() function cannot be used.

@Html.DropdownList("ddl", Model.recordList.Select(
       q => new SelectListItem 
       { 
         Text = q.recordName, 
         Value = SqlFunctions.StringConvert(q.recordId) 
       }
       , "choose one")

// recordId is an Integer

I get assembly reference error on runtime:

The type or namespace name 'Objects' does not exist in the namespace 
'System.Data' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

There is a project reference to System.Data.Entity already and @using System.Data.Objects.SqlClient in my View. I’m expecting this too as it doesn’t appear in Intellisense. I can use from Controllers but not in Views.

Am I breaking any MVC rule here? Or probably have it misconfigured?

Answer 1

It’s a misconfiguration.

To resolve, I had to:

1) add it in the assembly references in the Views/Web.config.

<system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
        <namespaces>
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
            <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
            <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" />
            <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
            <add namespace="System.Data.Entity" />
            <add namespace="System.Data.Objects.SqlClient" />
        </namespaces>
    </pages>
</system.web.webPages.razor>

2) Change the Project > References > System.Data.Entity property Copy Local = True. The assembly was not getting copied to the bin and thus identifies as missing.