Question

Suppose I have a simple model:

public class studentNames
{
string name{get; set;}
}

Now, if I scaffold it in view by create mode, only one model would be created. I want to create multiple objects in a single view.

Something like:

<form action="someAction">
Name of student1: <student1 name input box>
Name of student2: <student2 name input box>

<save button>

</form>

When this button would be clicked, a List would be returned in the controller, where I would be able to save them in database.

How can I achieve this?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could start by reading the convention that the model binder expects for binding to lists. And then name your input fields appropriately:

@using (Html.BeginForm("SomeAction", "SomeController"))
{
    @for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
    {
        <div>
            Name of student: @Html.TextBox("name[" + i + "]", null)
        </div>
    }
    <button type="submit">Save</button>
}

and then your POST controller action could take a collection of students:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult SomeAction(IList<StudentNames> students)
{
    ...
}

If you want to be able to dynamically add and remove items in this collection inside the view I would recommend you reading the Editing a variable length list article from Steven Sanderson where he illustrates a nice technique that would allow you to build such interface.