How to use CheckBoxFor in MVC forms with other form controls - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

Basically, i have a form with a textbox, radio button and a check box control. now i face problem with the checkbox control when i submit my page
I have a model like this
public class PersonDetails
{
public int personID { get; set; }
public string PersonName { get; set; }
public string Gender { get; set; }
public List<Education> Education { get; set; }
public string EmailID { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
}
public class Education
{
public string Qualification { get; set; }
public bool Checked { get; set; }
public List<Education> GetQualification()
{
return new List<Education>{
new Education {Qualification="SSC",Checked=false},
new Education {Qualification="HSC",Checked=false},
new Education {Qualification="Graduation",Checked=false},
new Education {Qualification="PostGraduation",Checked=false}
};
}
}
and i have a view like this
#using (Html.BeginForm("GetDetails", "User", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "person-form" }))
{
<div class="col-xs-12">
<label>Person Name</label>
#Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.PersonName)
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12">
<label>Gender</label>
#Html.RadioButtonFor(x => x.Gender, "Male")
#Html.RadioButtonFor(x => x.Gender, "Female")
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12">
<label>Education</label>
#{
Html.RenderPartial("Qualification", new LearnAuthentication.Controllers.Education().GetQualification());
}
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12">
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</div>
}
and the partial view like this
#model List<LearnAuthentication.Controllers.Education>
<br />
#for (int i = 0; i < Model.Count(); i++)
{
#Html.HiddenFor(x => Model[i].Qualification)
#Html.CheckBoxFor(x => Model[i].Checked)
#Html.DisplayFor(x => Model[i].Qualification)
<br />
}
and my action method is this
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult GetDetails(PersonDetails personDetails)
{
return View();
}
now when i run my app i tend to get all the information but when i submit the page i get this property with null values
public List Education { get; set; }
can any of you guys help me on what i am doing wrong or could you direct me to the right path on how to achieve this.

Answer 1

Your use of a partial to generate the controls for Education is generating inputs such as
<input type="hidden" name="[0].Qualification" ... />
<input type="hidden" name="[1].Qualification" ... />
but in order to bind, they need to have name attributes which match your model
<input type="hidden" name="Education[0].Qualification" ... />
<input type="hidden" name="Education[1].Qualification" ... />
Rename you partial to Education.cshtml (to match the name of the class) and move it to your /Views/Shared/EditorTemplates folder (or /Views/yourControllerName/EditorTemplates if you want a specific template just for that controller)
Then change the partial to
#model LearnAuthentication.Controllers.Education
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.Qualification)
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.Checked)
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.Checked)
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Qualification)
and in the main view replace
<label>Education</label>
#{ Html.RenderPartial("Qualification", new LearnAuthentication.Controllers.Education().GetQualification()); }
with
<span>Education</span> // its not a label
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Education)
which will correctly generate the correct html for each item in your collection
Side note: Other alternatives which would work would be to change the POST method signature to
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult GetDetails(PersonDetails personDetails List<Education> educationDetails)
or to pass the HtmlFieldPrefix to the partial as explained in getting the values from a nested complex object that is passed to a partial view