CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.net-mvc-3
z.eljayyo
z.eljayyo

Reputation: 1289

Combo Box Objects List

I have a form where one field should be a collection of objects (0 or more) from another table using combox/multiple-select dropdown, what is the best practice to establish this? e.g:

public class Person{
    public int PersonId { get; set; }
    public string PersonName  { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<Address> Addresses { get; set; }
    ///or
    public IList<Address> Addresses { get; set; }
    ///or
    public IEnumerable<Addresses > Addresses { get; set; }
}

thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 201

Answers (1)

kingrazor
kingrazor

Reputation: 367

One way to do it is to populate your address list in your controller and use the Html.DropDownList helper to create your drop down.

For example:

public ActionResult Index()
{
   var addressList = <YourAddressListHere>;
   ViewData["Addresses"] = new SelectList(addressList, "<ValueProperty>", "<NameProperty>");
   return View();
}

And in your view (Razor syntax):

@Html.DropDownList("AddressDropDown", (ViewData["Addresses"] as SelectList))

There is also Html.ListBoxFor and Html.ListBox helpers if you wanted to do multi-select. The same basic approach applies.

(EDIT) Sorry for my misunderstanding.

To get the list of addresses that were selected you can add the control name as a parameter in you "POST" handler and extract them during the save/edit/insert function.

[HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Edit(int[] addressList, <your parameters>)
.....

with the UI code as:

<div class="editor-field">    
    @Html.ListBox("addressList") 
</div>

You can do whatever you need with the list of address ID's that were selected. I know that there is more than likely a better way to do this with MVC. If anyone looks at this and knows a better way, please comment because I'd like to know myself. I know that you can create some custom binder classes that I think will do all of this stuff automatically, but I haven't gotten that far yet with MVC. I, myself, am a beginner with MVC.

In any case, I hope this helps a bit.

Upvotes: 2

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