Accepting params or raw data in controller? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I was wondering if it would be possible having a "params" argument in a controller function, or something similar which would allow me to process X amount of entries in my form.
For instance, I have a form which has X amount of "name" elements, which are auto-generated through jQuery. An example of these name elements could be the following:
<input type="text" name="studentName1"></input>
<input type="text" name="studentName2"></input>
<input type="text" name="studentName3"></input>
Now, there's a different amount of student names every time, so this makes it quite complex for me to handle the form data in my controller. I had something like the following 2 examples in mind, but of course they wouldn't work in reality.
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PostStudentNames(params string[] studentNames)
Or:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PostStudentNames(string[] formValues)
Can I achieve something similar to that?

Answer 1

I just want to chime in with a different approach you can use for this. If it's more convenient, you can model bind directly to collections of primitive or complex types. Here's 2 examples:
index.cshtml:
#using (Html.BeginForm("ListStrings", "Home"))
{
<p>Bind a collection of strings:</p>
<input type="text" name="[0]" value="The quick" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[1]" value="brown fox" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[2]" value="jumped over" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[3]" value="the donkey" /><br />
<input type="submit" value="List" />
}
#using (Html.BeginForm("ListComplexModel", "Home"))
{
<p>Bind a collection of complex models:</p>
<input type="text" name="[0].Id" value="1" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[0].Name" value="Bob" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[1].Id" value="2" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[1].Name" value="Jane" /><br />
<input type="submit" value="List" />
}
Student.cs:
public class Student
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
HomeController.cs:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult ListStrings(List<string> items)
{
return View(items);
}
public ActionResult ListComplexModel(List<Student> items)
{
return View(items);
}
}
ListStrings.cshtml:
#foreach (var item in Model)
{
<p>#item</p>
}
ListComplexModel.cshtml:
#foreach (var item in Model)
{
<p>#item.Id. #item.Name</p>
}
The first form simply binds a list of strings. The second, binds the form data to a List<Student>. By using this approach, you can let the default model binder do some of the tedious work for you.
Updated for comment
Yes you can do that too:
Form:
#using (Html.BeginForm("ListComplexModel", "Home"))
{
<p>Bind a collection of complex models:</p>
<input type="text" name="[0].Id" value="1" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[0].Name" value="Bob" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[1].Id" value="2" /><br />
<input type="text" name="[1].Name" value="Jane" /><br />
<input type="text" name="ClassId" value="13" /><br />
<input type="submit" value="List" />
}
Controller action:
public ActionResult ListComplexModel(List<Student> items, int ClassId)
{
// do stuff
}

Answer 2

Mathias,
This works perfectly well without recourse to the params object. your form controls:
<input type="text" name="studentName" />
<input type="text" name="studentName" />
<input type="text" name="studentName" />
<input type="text" name="professorName" />
You would use the FormCollection object, which will contain all your form elements as either comma separated lists (if a control array) or as single properties. In the above example, this is what we'd get:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PostStudentNames(FormCollection formValues)
{
// basic check for rogue commas inside input controls
// would need far more sophistication in a #real# app :)
var valueStudents = formValues["studentName"].Split(',')
.Where(x => x.Length > 0).ToArray();
var valueProfessor = formValues["professorName"];
// other stuff
}
etc... At least, this is my recollection of this from a recent project. :)

Answer 3

<input type="text" name="studentName[0]"></input>
<input type="text" name="studentName[1]"></input>
<input type="text" name="studentName[2]"></input>
public ActionResult PostStudentNames(string[] studentName)
{
}