Question

I’ve been attempting to bind a view to a list of objects as described here Model Binding To A List

My problem is when the list is returned via a POST, the list contains the correct number of elements that I originally sent, but the values within the objects are coming back as if they were never set. Not sure what I missed to make the model binder parse correctly.

Here is my test code:

My model is:

IList<Test>

where Test is defined as:

public class Test
{
    public int x;
}

In my TestController, I am using a method “Create” which has a postback:

public ActionResult Create()
    {

        List<Models.Test> testList = new List<Models.Test>() {
            new Models.Test() { x = 5 }
        };

        return View(testList);
    }

    //
    // POST: /Test/Create

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Create(IList<Models.Test> tests)//Models.TestContainer tc)
    {
        return View(tests);
    }

and the “Create” view’s code:

@model IList<ksg.Models.Test>
@using (Html.BeginForm()) {
@Html.ValidationSummary(true)

<fieldset>
    <legend>TestContainer</legend>
       @Html.EditorFor(x => x[0])
    <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Create" />
    </p>
</fieldset>
}

And finally, my editor template for the Test class:

@model ksg.Models.Test
@using ksg.Helpers
<div>
@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.x)
</div>

As shown above, I send a list with 1 item with Test.x = 5, but when I breakpoint on Create(IList<Models.Test> tests), tests contains 1 object with x = 0.

Any ideas what I missed?

Answer 1

I have tried your code and problem is that x in Test class is field and not property, thus the default model binder cannot set value from posted form. Test class should look like this:

public class Test
{
    public int X {get; set;}
}

Then it works.