MVC create using derived class - asp.net-mvc

Question

I'm new to MVC, so I apologize in advance if something doesn't make sense.
I have a base class (let's say "Person"), and 2 derived classes ("Student", "Professor").
I want to use 1 view for the Create functionality, with Partial views that contain the creation forms for either a student or professor. If I add a parameter, I can check against that to determine which partial view to show.
But my question is this: When the "Create" button is clicked, how can I determine which object is being created?
Edit (please bear w/ me, as I just created these to illustrate the problem)
Person class:
public class Person
{
public string Gender { get; set; }
public int ID { get; set; }
}
Student class:
public class Student : Person
{
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public List<Course> Courses { get; set; }
}
Professor class:
public class Professor : Person
{
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public double AnnualSalary { get; set; }
}
So then my Create controller looks like this:
public ActionResult Create(int personType) //1=student, 2=professor
{
var x = new {
Student = new Student(),
Professor = new Professor()
};
ViewBag.PersonType = personType;
return View(x);
}
Then my view looks like this:
<div>
#if (ViewBag.PersonType == 1)
{
#Html.Partial("CreateStudentPartialView", Model.Student)
}
else
{
#Html.Partial("CreateProfessorPartialView", Model.Professor)
}
So, the question is what would the associated create action look like, when the "Create" button is clicked in either partial view?
[HttpPost()]
public ActionResult Create(....) //What would I put as parameter(s)?
{
//no idea what to do here, since I don't know what object is being passed in
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

Answer 1

Your best bet here is to have multiple POST actions in your controller.
So in the forms in your partial views, specify the action to hit
#using (Html.BeginForm("CreateStudent", "Create")) {
and
#using (Html.BeginForm("CreateProfessor", "Create")) {
Then your controller will look something like this:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult CreateStudent(Student student)
{
//access the properties with the dot operator on the student object
//process the data
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
and
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult CreateProfessor(Professor professor)
{
//access the properties with the dot operator on the professor object
//process the data
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}