Populating a select box on my razor view - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have the following class:
public class Note : TableServiceEntity
{
public string Description { get; set; }
public string NoteDetailsJSON { get; set; }
}
It contains short descriptions that I would like to put into a select list in my view.
I get the data from the table like this.
Notes = noteTable.GetAll()
I have my viewmodel look like this:
public IEnumerable<Note> Notes { get; set; }
However when I try to populate my select box I get only the following:
#Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.Level,
new SelectList(Model.Notes, "Description", "Description"),
new { style = "display: inline;" }
)
<select id="Level" name="Level" style="display: inline;"><option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
<option value=""></option>
</select>
Some help on how to populate the select box would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

I don't get what your question or problem is. Most probably noteTable.GetAll() simply returns empty objects.
So assuming you have the following view model which contains a list of notes:
public class MyViewModel
{
public string Level { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<Note> Notes { get; set; }
}
and your controller action properly populates this model:
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new MyViewModel
{
Notes = noteTable.GetAll().ToList() // make sure that this returns some data
};
return View(model);
}
obviously the best way to ensure that your problem is not in the data source is to initially hardcode some data:
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new MyViewModel
{
Notes = Enumerable.Range(1, 5).Select(x => new Note
{
Description = "note description " + x
})
};
return View(model);
}
in your view you should be able to display the dropdownlist:
#model MyViewModel
#Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.Level,
new SelectList(Model.Notes, "Description", "Description"),
new { style = "display: inline;" }
)