Asp.Net MVC 3 not binding collections to models on posting - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

i have a object with many properties of which one is an array of some other complex object
something like this
class obj1
{
public string prop1 {get; set;}
public string prop2 {get; set;}
public obj2[] array {get; set;}
}
class obj2
{
SomeEnum Type{get; set;}
string Content{get; set;}
}
I have created an editor template for the array of obj2 lets name it obj2ArrayTemplate
which is like this
#for (int i = 0; i < Model.Length; i++)
{
#Html.EditorFor(model=>model[i],"obj2Template")
}
and an editor template for obj2 lets name It obj2Template
which is like this
<div class="editor-label">
#Html.DisplayFor(model=>model.Type,"SomeEnum",ViewData)
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.Content)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Content)
</div>
now because property Type if of type SomeEnum which is an enum and hence cannot be rendered directly by the Asp.Net MVC
I have created a Template for this too
which is something like this
<input type="text" value="#Model.ToString()" id="#ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix" name="#ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix"/>
the view is being rendered correctly and the HTML of the combined rendered view is
<div class="editor-field">
<input class="text-box single-line" id="array__0__Content" name="array.[0].Content" type="text" value="FBID" />
</div>
<div class="editor-label">
<input type="text" value="Blog" id="array.[1].Type" name="array.[1].Type"/>
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
<input class="text-box single-line" id="array__1__Content" name="array.[1].Content" type="text" value="SOme random blog" />
</div>
<div class="editor-label">
<input type="text" value="Twitter" id="array.[2].Type" name="array.[2].Type"/>
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
<input class="text-box single-line" id="array__2__Content" name="array.[2].Content" type="text" value="Twitter Profile" />
</div>
when iam posting back the form containing this html
chrome is showing me this posted data
prop1:val1
prop2:val2
array.[0].Type:Facebook
array.[0].Content:FBID
array.[1].Type:Blog
array.[1].Content:SOme random blog
array.[2].Type:Twitter
array.[2].Content:Twitter Profile
but still array field which is an array of obj2 in the model of type obj1 is null
what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Could crack that one :)
inspecting the request that was being posted from the server I found out that there is one .(dot) extra in the request so the array is not being populated
so instead of
array.[0].Type:Facebook
array.[0].Content:FBID
array.[1].Type:Blog
array.[1].Content:SOme random blog
array.[2].Type:Twitter
array.[2].Content:Twitter Profile
this should be posted back
array[0].Type:Facebook
array[0].Content:FBID
array[1].Type:Blog
array[1].Content:SOme random blog
array[2].Type:Twitter
array[2].Content:Twitter
and I found no apparent reason of why Asp.Net MVC framework is putting in that extra dot. when im kind of doing everything the MVC way
so I changed my code to include a little hack.
I added this like to the Editor template of obj 2
#{
ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix = ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix.Replace(".", "");
}
so now everything is running fine and smooth.