Question

In working with MVC I am finding my Views to be rigid in terms of their associated Model definition. Should I design my Models around the needs of my view? I realize I can create a container specifically for my view. Then design a second Model in terms of Entities. But, it appears that I always need this stand-between. I mean, there’s even a @model to declare what the View is supposed to be coupled to.

For example, I have a View with two tables. The tables both work off the same Entity, so it doesn’t make sense to use that Entity as the Model. Rather, the Model needs to be a wrapper that contains 2 of said entities. Moreover, the entities really need to be converted to string[] in order to avoid data massaging in the View.

Am I just too much of an MVC nublet, or is this how MVC is designed to work? Tight relationship with View-Model.

Answer 1

Use a ViewModel for your views. It’s bad practice to associate your View with the Model that comes directly from EF.

public class ProductViewModel
{
    public ProductViewModel(List<Product> products, List<Category> categories)
    {
        this.Products = products;
        this.Categories = categories;
    }

    public List<Product> Products { get; private set; }
    public List<Category> Categories { get; private set; }

}

ViewModel Best Practices
ASP.NET MVC View Model Patterns