MVC3 Razor Passing Model from View to Controller - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have a MVC3 application using Entity Framework as the Model layer.
In the EmployeeController, I have:
public ActionResult GetEmployeeEdit(String id)
{
// Get the desired Employee
var model = GetEmployees().FirstOrDefault(o=>o.EFolderid == id);
return View("EmployeeEdit", model);
}
private IQueryable<Employee> GetEmployees()
{
// Returns IQueryable<Employee>
return _employeeService.GetTable();
}
In EmployeeEdit I have:
#model Metastorm.Domain.Models.Employee
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Employee Edit";
}
#using (Html.BeginForm("SaveEmployee", "Employee", FormMethod.Get, Model))
{
<fieldset>
<legend>Edit Employee</legend>
<br />
#Html.Label("firstName", "First Name: ")
#Html.EditorFor(o => #Model.NameFirst)
<br />
#Html.Label("lastName", "Last Name: ")
#Html.EditorFor(o => #Model.NameLast)
</fieldset>
<br />
<input class="button" id="submit" type="submit" value = "Save Employee" />
}
Now back to the EmployeeController:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult SaveEmployee(Employee employee)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
// Get the Employee Model again from Entity, Update and save
// Unfortunately, the employee object's FolderId value is null
}
// Just getting a model to satisfy the function
var model = GetEmployees().FirstOrDefault();
return View("EmployeeEdit", model);
}
The problem I'm having is that all properties on the employee object are null, except for Employee.NameFirst and Employee.NameLast, which happen to be the properties that were exposed in the View with Html.EditorFor.
In summary, I get an Employee model object, which is fully hydrated. I pass this model from the Controller to the view. In the view, selected fields are allowed to be updated. The Employee model is then passed back to the Controller where updates are persisted.
My question is how do I keep the Employee model that was originally passed from the Controller to the View intact. In other words, I want to have the model

Answer 1

Try to use this code:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult SaveEmployee([Bind(Include = "NameFirst,NameLast,EFolderid")] Employee employee)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
// Do your staff
// The employee object's FolderId value will be not null
}
// Just getting a model to satisfy the function
var model = GetEmployees().FirstOrDefault();
return View("EmployeeEdit", model);
}
This will force the data members "NameFirst, NameLast, EFolderid" of the object employee to be persistent. You need to declare in the include statement all the members that you want to be preserved during the Http request.
You should also add this code in your view, inside the Form, or the EFolderid data will be lost:
#Html.HiddenFor(o=> #Model.EFolderid)
Add an "HiddenFor" declaration foreach member that you want to preserve.

Answer 2

To obtain model properties in a Post action, you need include all the properties inside the form.
It is necessary for a correct model serialization.

Answer 3

I went a different route. I created a view model, then us AutoMapper to map the Employee object's properties to the view model. I pass the view model to the view, make changes, then pass the view model back to the Action. Then I can then user AutoMapper to map the view model back to a new instance of the Employee Object, then persist the changes.