Question

I’m using MVC 4 and usually Visual Studio will create all the views for you. I have one form that just has one field and I want to just embed the create form into the Index View.

So the Index View has something like @model IEnumerable<Models.LinkModel>

So I access it by iterating through the Model collection.

But if I try to embed the form for the create action I need @model Models.LinkModel
and it is accessed by Model.Name as well. Is there a way to do this or use a different variable name?

Ok here is some extra info.

SO I have a model.

public class LinkModel
{
   public string LinkUrl {get;set;}
}

I have a controller that has the Create and Index ActionResults.

Now in the Index view I have

@model IEnumerable<Models.LinkModel>

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Links";
}

I can do all my fancy logic to list all the links.

@foreach(link in Model)
{
    <p>link.LinkUrl<p>
}

The Create View has this

@model Models.LinkModel // Note that it is just one item not IEnumerable

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Add Link";
}

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    <fieldset class="editor-fieldset">
        <legend>LinkModel</legend>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.LinkUrl)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.LinkUrl)
        </div>
       <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Add Link" />
       </p>
    </fieldset>
}

Now it seems pretty stupid to have a create form for just one field. I want to put this form on the Index page. Problem is that I access the object using the variable Model. I wanted to know if there is a way to have two seperate instances or be able to access the Model objects with different names.

Answer 1

Have a composite model with a list of items and 1 single item for the create

public class  IndexModel {
   public LinkModel CreateModel {get; set;}
   public IEnumerable<LinkModel> Items {get; set;}
}


@model IndexModel
@using(Html.BeginForm("create")) {
   @Html.EditorFor(m => m.CreateModel.Name);
}
@foreach(var item in Model.Items) {
  @item.Name
}