Question

I’ve got a field which its type is byte[]. This field will hold my entity’s RecordVersion property (timestamp in the database). How do I keep this field so that when I save my entity it is available?

I’ve tried two different things and haven’t succeeded so far: This renders ‘System.Byte[]’:

<%= Html.Hidden('RecordVersion', Model.RecordVersion.ToString()) %> 

This throws a ModelStateError where the type couldn’t be converted:

ViewData['RecordVersion'] = entity.RecordVersion 

Apparently the default MVC’s mechanism that does the bind/unbind doesn’t like much byte[] fields …..

Answer 1

You need to make a modelbinder and register it.

This article shows how to use a timestamp from a linq database in a hidden field much like what you are doing.

 ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(Binary), new LinqBinaryModelBinder());  

In global.asax to register it.

That LinqBinaryModelBinder is in the futures assembly. If you want to user byte[] you’ll have to write one yourself.