Question

I’m trying to implement what this answer suggests but without storing the display name in my model code, so I believe it’s a separate question.

I have an MVC view

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="PathToMaster" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<ModelData>" %>

and a model:

public class ModelData {
    public bool Option1 { get; set; }
}

and I have a .aspx with HTML markup for a form that contains a checkbox:

<label for="MyCheckbox">Your choice</label>
<%= Html.CheckBoxFor(Model=>Model.Option1, new { id="Option1", @class="checkbox", onchange="return myValidation();", name="MyCheckbox", value="Option one" } ) %>

which when it is compiled yields this HTML:

<label for="MyCheckbox">Your choice</label>
<input class="checkbox" id="Option1" name="Option1" onchange="return myValidation();" type="checkbox" value="Option one" /><input name="Option1" type="hidden" value="false" />

and whenever I check the checkbox and submit the form the controller-action

class MyController : Controller {
   [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
   public ActionResult RequestStuff( ModelData data )
   {
   }
}

receives data where Option1 is false.

What am I doing wrong? How do I make the checkbox map to the model member?

Answer 1

Since you said changing the alias in the helper expression didn’t cut it, I took the time to prepare the MVC2 test project, here’s how it looks:

MyModel.cs:

namespace TestAppMVC2.Models
{
    public class MyModel
    {
       public bool Option1 { get; set; }
    }
}

Controller’s actions:

    public ActionResult MyAction()
    {
        var viewModel = new MyModel();
        return View(viewModel);
    }


    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult MyAction(MyModel viewModel)
    {
        bool option = viewModel.Option1;
        return View();
    }

The view (MyAction.aspx):

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<TestAppMVC2.Models.MyModel>" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
MyAction
</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">

<h2>MyAction</h2>

<% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%>
    <%: Html.ValidationSummary(true) %>

    <fieldset>
        <legend>Fields</legend>

        <div class="editor-label">
            <%: Html.LabelFor(model => model.Option1) %>
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            <%: Html.CheckBoxFor(model => model.Option1) %>
            <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Option1) %>
        </div>

        <p>
            <input type="submit" value="Save" />
        </p>
    </fieldset>

<% } %>

<div>
    <%: Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index") %>
</div>

Looks like this:

And the result after checking the checkbox:

By the way, the View was generated entirely (well, almost entirely, I changed TextBoxFor to CheckBoxFor) by Add View -> Strongly Typed View for the MyModel class and template: Edit.

So it looks like the binding above should be OK. Try this and then you can fiddle with custom options on checkboxes. 🙂

Like I wrote in the other answer, the idea is essentially the same, only in MVC3 the Razor syntax looks a bit cleaner. But that’s about it when it comes to differences. 🙂