Question

In my model class I have a boolean property DoNotEmail.

In the UI design I’ve been given to create a view for, the meaning of the checkbox is inverted; i.e. the label next to the checkbox says "Send Email".

Normally I would add the checkbox like this: @Html.CheckBoxFor(model => model.DoNotEmail) but clearly this is the wrong way round.

Do I need to create a separate view model with a custom property for this checkbox, or is there some clever way I can do something like: @Html.CheckBoxFor(model => !model.DoNotEmail) (which clearly doesn’t work)?

Answer 1

Passing entities directly to your view is never a good idea, if your DB schema ever changes you would have to go through all your views and update them. I would recommend creating a ViewModel and passing only the data required for the view, then map your DoNotEmail property in the controller. That way you maintain the abstraction between your model/view and keeps your view simple e.g.

public void ViewModel
{
    [DisplayName("Send Email")]
    public bool SendEmailNotification { get; set; }
}

View

@model ViewModel

@Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.SendEmailNotifications)

Controller

public void Post(ViewModel model)
{
    var entity = ...;
    entity.DoNotEmail = !model.SendEmailNotification;
}