Question

is there any way to re-build a strongly typed view when the model class has new fields added?

At present I have not modified the initial generated view so deleting and re-creating is not a problem.

When I start to customize it to my liking I will lose all changes and I was wondering if there was a good way to manage this?

Thanks

Answer 1

ASP.NET MVC offers two types of scaffolding, each with its own advantages:

The first kind of scaffolding is design-time scaffolding, which is done through the Add View dialog and T4 templates. The advantage of this is that the code is entirely generated and you can completely customize it. The disadvantage is that if you change your model you have to regenerate your view (by deleting it and adding back a new one).

The second kind of scaffolding is runtime scaffolding, which is done through the Html.EditorFor() and Html.DisplayFor() methods in your view. The advantage of this is that if your model changes then the scaffolding will be automatically generated at runtime. The disadvantage is that you cannot directly customize the rendering. You can, however, give this scaffolding many hints using DataAnnotations attributes such as [DisplayText], [UIHint], and so forth, so it is quite flexible – but it is not nearly as flexible as being able to 100% customize the rendering.

To customize the rendering of runtime scaffolding (editor templates and display templates) you can find more info on Brad Wilson’s blog series.