Question

Newbie ASP.NET MVC question:

I have the following model:

public class Customer
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
}

And the following view for customer:

<% using (Html.BeginForm()) { %>
    First Name: <%=Html.TextBox("FirstName") %>
    Last Name: <%=Html.TextBox("LastName") %>
    <% Html.RenderPartial("AddressView", Model.Address); %>
    <input type="submit" name="btnSubmit" value="Submit"/>
<%} %>

And the following partial view for Address:

<%=Html.DropDownList("CountryId", new SelectList(Country.GetAll(), "Id", "Name") })%>
<%=Html.DropDownList("CountrySubdivisionId", new SelectList(CountrySubDivision.GetByCountryId(Model.CountryId), "Id", "Name"))%>

And the following controller action:

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ViewResult Index(Customer customer, Address address)
    {
        customer.Address = address;
        ViewData.Model = customer;
        return View();
    }

I was hoping that the action would work with 1 parameter: customer, and that I would not have to reassign customer.Address manually. However, when the action is executed, Customer.Address is null.

Am I using model binding incorrectly, or does my action require separate parameters for Customer and Address?

Answer 1

Use Html.EditorFor instead of Html.RenderPartial.

See Model binding with nested child models and PartialViews in ASP.NET MVC.