Use properties of different models in view (.net MVC) - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am learning MVC and display a list of products in a view.
#model IEnumerable<Domain.Model.Product>
<table>
<tr>
<th style="width:50px; text-align:left">Id</th>
<th style="text-align:left">Name</th>
<th style="text-align:left">Category</th>
</tr>
#foreach (var item in Model) {
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Id)
</td>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Name)
</td>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Category.Name)
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
The products belong to categories, which are displayed in the right column. I now want to filter the products by categories, for which I would like to use a dropdownlist control. I found #Html.DropDownListFor(), but as far as I understand, this will only give me properties of the currently underlying model (Product).
My controller:
public class ProductController : Controller
{
ProductRepository pr = new ProductRepository();
public ActionResult Default()
{
List<Product> products = pr.GetAll();
return View("List", products);
}
}

Answer 1

You could do something like this. Just create a class with the info that you need.
public class ProductsModel
{
public ProductsModel() {
products = new List<Product>();
categories = new List<SelectListItem>();
}
public List<Product> products { get;set; }
public List<SelectListItem> categories { get;set; }
public int CategoryID { get;set; }
}
Then your controller:
public class ProductController : Controller
{
ProductRepository pr = new ProductRepository();
public ActionResult Default()
{
ProductsModel model = new ProductsModel();
model.products = pr.getAll();
List<Category> categories = pr.getCategories();
model.categories = (from c in categories select new SelectListItem {
Text = c.Name,
Value = c.CategoryID
}).ToList();
return View("List", model);
}
}
Finally, your view
#model IEnumerable<Domain.Model.ProductsModel>
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => model.CategoryID, model.categories)
<table>
<tr>
<th style="width:50px; text-align:left">Id</th>
<th style="text-align:left">Name</th>
<th style="text-align:left">Category</th>
</tr>
#foreach (var item in Model.products) {
<tr>
<td>
#item.Id
</td>
<td>
#item.Name
</td>
<td>
#item.Category.Name
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>