MVC 4 - View That Accepts Multiple Parameters - asp.net-mvc

I have seen a few other threads with the same question as mine but I don't understand them very much. Anyway, my scenario is this: I have a MainView which renders four different PartialViews in it. The reason is because each PartialView contains data that comes from different Tables(Models).
So my problem is this. My MainView accepts a parameter of type string which is an ID. I need to pass that ID to each of my PartialViews. This can be easily achieved but the problem is, each partial views also needs to accept parameter of type List<>.
My question is, how can I pass two parameters to my PartialView (ie string and List<>)?
Currently, my PartialViews accept only one parameter (List<>).

create an object containing both the string and the list<>, and pass that to your PartialViews.

You can use ViewModels. Create a Viewmodel that is the result of all objects you need to present in the view. Is more clean.
There are many articles with this information.

Related

Why do we use #html.action(string,object)?

I really don't understand the usage of Html.Action(string,object) its return type is HTMl string so why do we even need it? and whats its relation with partialviewresult ? I have seen some people using #html.action(String actionname,Object routeobject); in any of their view and controller invoked by this method returns a partialviewresult whats that ?
Firstly, HtmlString represents an HTML-encoded string that should not be encoded again. HtmlString Class
There is a answer that I believe is good from this question:
#Html.Action and #Html.RenderAction are used when your partial view model are independent from parent model, basically it is used when you want to display any widget type content on page. You must create an action method which returns a partial view result while calling the method from view.
More, use Html.Action when you actually need to retrieve additional data from the server to populate the partial view
Please have a look at the documentation for more detailed information.
More questions about the same topic:
How can I use Html.Action?
MVC Html.Partial or Html.Action
Maybe a bit of research before posting a question would be better

Mvc How safe is viewbag?

My website is built around tabs. I have one single page with multiple partial views that display each tab.
The problem im facing now is I want to loop through files that the user has uploaded and display them in one of my partial views. This requires me to send the file list as a paramater in my action like this:
//Uploadedfiles is a function that adds the files to a list.
var files = UploadedFiles();
return View(files);
Because im only using one view to display all my partial views, i get:
The model item passed into the dictionary is of type 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Core.Util.CommonUtility+d__0`1[Delamapp.CloudStorageServices.UploadEntity]', but this dictionary requires a model item of type 'Delamapp.Models.LoginFolder'.
This means im required to not send a model item to my index view. Now, the only thing i can think off is adding my file list to viewbag and then display them on my view. BUT.. The files require high security. How safe is viewbag? Can you for example store sensitive login information in there? Can you think off some other way to accomplish this?
Thank you in advance
You can pass a model item to your view, but the model item you are passing doesn't match the type of model that your view uses (that's what the error message says).
So you need to do one of the following:
Modify your view to accept the model type that you are passing to it
Put the data you want to pass into the model type that your view is expecting
Create a new model type for both your data and for the view, and use that
In terms of security, I don't think using a view bag versus model binding really enters into the question of security. Both are just ways of passing data in between the controller and the view, and that all takes place within the ASP.NET process (perhaps you have ViewBag confused with Web Forms' ViewState?).

Why isnt my EditorTemplate binding a List on [HttpPost], but renders it fine on [HttpGet]?

I have uploaded my code to pastebin, this is the link:
http://pastebin.com/wBu9PP2x
When i submit a form, the Lists that i use are not bound to my ViewModel.
But when i send the ViewModel to the view, it renders fine using EditorFor. I have read that when using EditorTemplates, it is supposed to name the List appropriately so that they are bound to the ViewModel automatically upon postback.
The HTML output can be seen here:
http://pastebin.com/5KeyNXWC
Notice that the ViewModel derives from ShowQuestionViewModel, which contains some strings. These strings get bound perfectly.
This is the tutorial i have been following:
http://jarrettmeyer.com/post/2995732471/nested-collection-models-in-asp-net-mvc-3
In the tutorial, the MVC framework knows how to bind lists inside of a ViewModel.
Here are some debugger outputs:
Controller takes ShowQuestionViewModel as parameter:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/803/debug.jpg
Controller takes FormCollection as parameter:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/542/formcollection.png
Different Controller that takes a List and FormCollection as parameter:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/listtest.png
Dont give up on me guys!!
Thanks!
Solution
I have found this solutin myself. I forgot to use Properties for the rows and columns list in the ShowMatrixQuestionViewModel. Also, the ActionController wont bind without TryUpdateModel() so thanks to #Adam Tuliper as well as the rest.
Since you mentioned lists are you sure your model Upon postback contains all of the expected items? Also remembe the HTML helpers will use modelstate to bind data from as well if you are showing data after a post and not redirecting.

dynamically generating an Enumerable object of a specific type from a string representation of the type

I'm trying to design a solution in MVC in which a string representation of a class is passed to the controller which should then build a grid with all the data belonging to that class in the DB. (I'm using an ORM to map classes to tables).
//A method in the Model that populates the Item Property
foreach (MethodInfo method in sDRMethods)
{
if (method.Name.Contains(_domainTable))
{
Items = method.Invoke(repositoryObject, null);
break;
}
}
//View uses this Items property of the Model to populate the grid.
public object Items;
//_domainTable is the name of the table/class (in string format).
//repositoryObject is the object that has methods to return IEnumerable<class> collection object of each type.
The problem I have is that I do not know how to cast the "Items" property in my view to iterate through it and build a grid.
I have tried using the "http://mvcsharp.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/building-a-data-grid-in-asp-net-mvc/" but the generic extension method is expecting to know the specific type that it should work with.
I would prefer to use MVC but it looks like I cannot easily have this working(which is very hard to believe).
I really don't like the sound of what you are trying to do. Why convert the table to a string?
The only time you would convert to a string, is when the view gets rendered. And that, in most cases, should be left to the MVC framework.
The code you mentioned uses an HtmlTextWriter which is fine, because it will render straight to the response.
However, it sounds as if you are trying to reinvent the wheel by rendering everything to a string, rather than leaving that to the framework.
Note that in MVC the views are just templates for rendering strings, which is, if I have understood you, exactly what you need.
So, if I have remotely understood what you are trying to do, and it is a big if because your post is not clear, you should pass your class to view as part of the strongly typed model, and then write some basic design logic into the view.
If I am right, which is not certain, I think you have misunderstood how MVC works.
Have a look at a few examples of how to use views to render the data in a model. The model can be any class, it can be an IEnumerable, a list, whatever, and you can use foreach loops in the view to render out what you want, how you want it.
In this sense, MVC is very different to writing custom controls in plain vanilla ASP.NET.
Thanks for your reply awrigley.
The requirement is quite simple. I perhaps made it sound awfully complex in my post.
On an Index view, I have to populate a dropdownlist with all the tables of the application that are system lookup. The "Admin" of the app, selects an item from the dropdownlist which should show the contects of that table in a grid so that the admin can perform CRUD operations using that grid.
What I am trying to do is, pass the selected item (which is the name of the table) to the controller which in turn passes it to the ViewModel class. This class uses reflection to invoke (code shown in my original question) the right method of a repository which has got methods like:
public IEnumerable GetAllTable1Data()
{
.....
}
The problem I have is that when I invoke the method, it returns a type "object" which I cannot cast to anything specific because I don't know the specific type that it should be cast to. When this object is passed to the view, the grid is expecting an IEnumerable or IEnumerable but I do not know this information. I am not able to do this:
(IEnumerable)method.Invoke(repositoryObject, null)
I get: cannot cast IEnumerable to IEnumerable
I (kind of) have the grid now displaying but I am using a Switch statement in the view that goes:
Switch(SLU_Type)
{
case "SLU_Table1": Html.Grid((IEnumerable)Model.Items);
case "SLU_Table2": Html.Grid((IEnumerable)Model.Items);
.....
}
I don't like this at all, it feels wrong but I just cannot find a decent way!
I could have partial views for each of the system look up tables but for that I'll have to add around 30 partial views with almost exactly same code for the Action & View. This does not seem right either!
Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of what I'm trying to achieve.

how to pass data from view to controller in asp.net mvc

What is the best way to pass random data from a view to a controller.
I have a number of views that are identical except for a few pieces of state information. instead of creating a page for each webpage, I want to have one page and I just pass over these variables dynamically.
Although not the "recommended" approach, you can make your action method accept a FormCollection as the parameter. You can then write your own logic to pull whatever data you need from that object. Basically the FormCollection will contain all fields inside the form that is posted as a key-value pair.
The signature would look like this:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Index(FormCollection form)
{
// logic here to
}
Not shure about the "random data" - but maybe the question is realy about "views that are identical"
Put the common parts into a partial and the differing parts into the page, if your layout allows it.
You would have a couple of pages then, but no duplicate code.
Or is your problem more on the controller/model side?

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