How can use MVC DropDownlist - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have a problem with DropDownlist in MVC
I use ModelView in my application and this is my code
namespace MedicallexiconProject.ViewModel
{
public class WordViewModel
{
private readonly ICategoryService _categoryService;
public WordViewModel(ICategoryService categoryService)
{
_categoryService = categoryService;
var selectList = _categoryService.GetAllCategorysSelectList().
Select(x => new SelectListItem
{
Text = x.Name,
Value = x.ID.ToString()
}).ToList();
Categories = selectList;
}
public WordViewModel()
{
}
public string Name { get; set; }
private IList<SelectListItem> _categories;
public IList<SelectListItem> Categories
{
get
{
if (_categories == null)
{
_categories = new List<SelectListItem>();
}
return (_categories);
}
set { _categories = value; }
}
}
}
and this is my controller
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Create()
{
var wordViewModel = new WordViewModel(_categoryService);
ViewBag.CategoryID = wordViewModel.Categories;
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(WordViewModel wordViewModel)
{
Mapper.CreateMap<WordViewModel, Word>();
var word = new Word();
Mapper.Map(wordViewModel, word);
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
_wordService.AddNewWord(word);
_uow.SaveChanges();
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
return View(wordViewModel);
}
Now how can I insert dropdownlist in my View?

Answer 1

As AlfalfaStrange mentioned, you should not add logic in your ViewModel. That makes it ugly ! Keep your ViewModel simple POCO.
Add one more property in your ViewModel called "SelectedCategoryID" like this
public class WordViewModel
{
public int SelectedCategoryID { set;get;}
public IList<SelectListItem> Categories { set;get;}
public string Name { set;get;}
}
Initialize your Items (Categories) of your ViewModel in your GET method. Here i am calling a method called GetCategories which returns a list of categories.I can simply call the method wherever i want.
public ActionResult Create()
{
var model=new WordViewModel();
model.Categories=YourService.GetCategories();
return View(model);
}
In your strongly typed Create view , use this
#model WordViewModel
using(#Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.DropDownFor(x=>x.SelectedCategoryID,
new SelectList(Model.Categories,"Value","Text"),"Select Category")
<input type="submit" value="Save" />
}
In your HttpPost action method , you can check for wordViewModel.SelectedCategoryID for the selected value.
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(WordViewModel wordViewModel)
{
if(ModelState.IsValid)
{
//Checck for wordViewModel.SelectedCategoryID here now
}
//some validation failed. Let's reload the category data again.
wordViewModel.Categories=YourService.GetCategories();
return View(wordViewModel);
}

Answer 2

It's absolutely fine to include code that loads a dropdown list in your view model. A select list and a drop down are both "view" items.... they are not related to business logic and your controller and model need not know anything about SelectLists or SelectListItems or DropDownList, etc.