Composite model not binding mvc 3 - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have created two models, Student and School and a composite model, StudentSchool. I am using two different partiel views to create one the Student and the other the School. However, in my controller, I am getting null values for both the Student and School. Below is my code:
Student:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace LayoutProject.Models
{
public class Student
{
public int studentID { get; set; }
public String firstname { get; set; }
public String lastname { get; set; }
public int year { get; set; }
}
}
School:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace LayoutProject.Models
{
public class School
{
public int schoolID { get; set; }
public String name { get; set; }
public String add { get; set; }
}
}
Composite model, StudentSchool:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace LayoutProject.Models
{
public class StudentSchool
{
public Student student { get; set; }
public School school { get; set; }
}
}
PartielViewStudent:
#model LayoutProject.Models.Student
<h4>Student</h4>
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.studentID) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.studentID)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.firstname) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.firstname)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.lastname) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.lastname)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.year) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.year)
<br />
PartialViewSchool:
#model LayoutProject.Models.School
<h4>School</h4>
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.schoolID) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.schoolID)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.name) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.name)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(d=>d.add) : #Html.TextBoxFor(d=>d.add)
<br />
The View:
#{
ViewBag.Title = "StudentSchool";
}
<h2>StudentSchool</h2>
<form action="/Home/CreateStudentSchools" method="post">
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.Partial("_PartialViewStudent")
#Html.Partial("_PartialViewSchool")
}
<input id="createSD" type="submit" value="Submit"/>
</form>
The controller:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult CreateStudentSchools(StudentSchool ss)
{
return View("CreateStudentSchool");
}
Any idea what I might be missing here? Been with this since 4 days.

Answer 1

Move you 'partial' views into the /Views/Shared/EditorTemplates folder and rename them to Student.cshtml and School.cshtml respectively (to match the names of the classes). Then in the main view use
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Student)
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.School)
}
The inputs your generating will now contain the correct name attribute for binding to your view model, for example name="Student.studentID" instead of the current name="studentID"
Note: As an alternative, you can pass the HtmlFieldPrefix to a Partial as indicated in this answer.

Answer 2

Its not a good idea if you provide the two partial views with different models and combining in one model.You have to pass the reference of the composite model to your partial views.
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.Partial("_PartialViewStudent",Model.student)
#Html.Partial("_PartialViewSchool",Model.school)
}
This will work fine as with this approach as everything in the form is strictly typed.
In partial views also you have to specify models as
#model LayoutProject.Models.StudentSchool.student
#model LayoutProject.Models.StudentSchool.school
I am not sure about your [httpget] create method but it should be like
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CreateStudentSchools(StudentSchool ss)
{
var studentsc=new StudentSchool()
{
student=new Student(),
school=new School()
}
return View("CreateStudentSchool",studentsc);
}