Question

I’ve seen numerous examples of create actions in articles, books, and examples. It seem there are two prevalent styles.

 [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
 public ActionResult Create(FormCollection collection)
 {
     try
     {
         var contact = Contact.Create();
         UpdateModel<Contact>(contact);
         contact.Save();
         return RedirectToAction("Index");
     }
     catch (InvalidOperationException ex)
     {
         return View();
     }
 }

And…

 [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
 public ActionResult Create([Bind(Exclude="Id")]Contact contact)
 {
     try
     {
         contact.Save();  // ... assumes model does validation
         return RedirectToAction("Index");
     }
     catch (Exception ex)
     {
         // ... have to handle model exceptions and populate ModelState errors
         // ... either here or in the model's validation
         return View();
     }
 }

I’ve tried both methods and both have pluses and minuses, IMO.

For example, when using the FormCollection version I have to deal with the “Id” manually in my model binder as the Bind/Exclude doesn’t work here. With the typed version of the method I don’t get to use the model binder at all. I like using the model binder as it lets me populate the ModelState errors without having any knowledge of the ModelState in my model’s validation code.

Any insights?

Update:
I answered my own question, but I wont mark it as answered for a few days in case somebody has a better answer.

Answer 1

Well, after some dinking around I discovered what should have been obvious: passing the model as the parameter merely causes the default model binder to get used behind the scenes. Since this was my biggest reason not to use the strongly-typed version, then I guess there is no reason not to now.

Also, my code should look like this:

 [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
 public ActionResult Create([Bind(Exclude="Id")]Contact contact)
 {
     if(!ModelState.IsValid)
         return View();

     contact.Save();
     return RedirectToAction("Index");
 }