DropDownList with possible nested DropDownList in MVC4

Question

I have a set of questions the user can choose from and some of those questions have a secondary list of options to choose from. My goal is to have a drop down list and if you pick one of the options that has items in its SecondaryChoiceList then a second list would appear below the initial dropdown and all of this would be strongly typed and bound to the model upon submission.

I can get the initial list to appear by saying:

@Html.DropDownListFor( x => x.SelectedChoiceId, new SelectList(Model.Choices, "Id", "Name"))

But that has no hooks to the secondary list and I am completely lost as to how I would tie that secondary list back to the model that is returned when I submit the form.

Here's my view model:

public class ExampleViewModel
{
    public List<Choice> ChoiceList { get; set; }
    public int SelectedChoiceId { get; set; }
    public int SelectedAffiliateId { get; set; }
}

Here is what a Choice looks like:

public class Choice
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<SecondaryChoice> SecondaryChoiceList { get; set; }

    public Choice()
    {
        SecondaryChoiceList = new List<SecondaryChoice>();
    }
}

And here is my SecondaryChoice object:

public class EligibleAffiliate
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int EligibilityChoiceId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

If there is anything that I can clear up let me know.

Answer 1

I have tried to keep it as simple as possible.

So, a sample model is given below:

namespace StackOverflow.Models
{
    public class Choice
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public Choice()
        {
            Id = 0;
        }

        public Choice(int id, string name)
        {
            Id = id;
            Name = name;
        }
    }
}


namespace StackOverflow.Models
{
    public class ExampleViewModel
    {
        public List<Choice> PrimaryChoiceList { get; set; }
        public List<Choice> SecondaryChoiceList { get; set; }
        public int SelectedChoiceId { get; set; }
        public int SelectedAffiliateId { get; set; }

        public ExampleViewModel()
        {
            SelectedChoiceId = 0;
            SelectedAffiliateId = 0;

            PrimaryChoiceList = new List<Choice>()
            {
                new Choice(1, "How are you?"),
                new Choice(2, "How is the weahter?"),
                new Choice(3, "What have you been doing so far?"),
                new Choice(4, "What's up man?"),
                new Choice(5, "Any news?"),
                new Choice(5, "Bla bla bla")
            };

            SecondaryChoiceList = new List<Choice>()
            {
                new Choice(1, "How are you dear?"),
                new Choice(2, "How is the weahter?"),
                new Choice(3, "What have you been doing so far dear?"),
                new Choice(4, "What's up man?"),
                new Choice(5, "Any romantic news?")
            };
        }
    }
}

Sample controller:

namespace StackOverFlow.Controllers
{
    public class SOController : Controller
    {
        public static ExampleViewModel evm = new ExampleViewModel();

        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View(evm);
        }

        public ActionResult SetSelection(int id)
        {
            evm.SelectedChoiceId = id;

            if (evm.PrimaryChoiceList.Count() > 0)
            {
                Choice selection = evm.PrimaryChoiceList.ElementAt(id-1);
                Choice affiliate = (Choice)evm.SecondaryChoiceList.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name == selection.Name);
                if (affiliate != null)
                {
                    return Content("show");
                }
                else
                {
                    return Content("hide");
                }
            }
            else
            {
                return Content("hide");
            }
        }
    }
}

And the web page:

@using StackOverflow2.Models;
@model ExampleViewModel

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery-1.7.1.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Stackoverflow Sample";
}

<h2>Index</h2>

<script type="text/javascript">

    // Get the selection and make Ajax Request to the controller, action: SetSelection,
    // which in turn may decide whetger you must show or hide the control
    function updateSeconadryQuestion(id) {
        var xmlhttp;
        if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
            xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
        }
        else {// code for IE6, IE5
            xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        }
        xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function () {
            if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
                if (xmlhttp.responseText == 'show')
                    $('#SecondaryQuestionDropBoxId').show();
                else
                    $('#SecondaryQuestionDropBoxId').hide();
            }
        }
        xmlhttp.open("GET", "/SO/SetSelection?id=" + id, true);
        xmlhttp.send();
    }

</script>

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.SelectedChoiceId, new SelectList(Model.PrimaryChoiceList, "Id", "Name", "Value"), new { id = "PrimaryQuestionDropBoxId", onchange = "updateSeconadryQuestion(value);" })

<div id="SeconadryQuestionDivId">
@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.SelectedAffiliateId, new SelectList(Model.SecondaryChoiceList, "Id", "Name"), new { id = "SecondaryQuestionDropBoxId" })
</div>