passing data from view to controller on asp.net mvc 3 - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

i have problem to pass data from view to controller , i have view that is strongly typed with my viewmodel "TimeLineModel", in the first i passed to this view my viewmodel from action on my controller
public ActionResult confirmation(long socialbuzzCompaignId)
{
return View(new TimeLineModel() { socialBuzzCompaignId = socialbuzzCompaignId, BuzzMessages = model });
}
with this i can get info from my action and display it on view , but i have other action POST which i won't get my view model to do some traitement
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult confirmation(TimeLineModel model)
{
}
i can get some propretie of the model but in others no , for example i can get the properti "socialBuzzCompaignId" of model , but other propertie like "IEnumerable BuzzMessages" i can't get it , i dont now why !!
this is the content of my view
#model Maya.Web.Models.TimeLineModel
#{
ViewBag.Title = "confirmation";
}
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<h2>confirmation</h2>
<fieldset>
#foreach (var msg in Model.BuzzMessages)
{
<div class="editor-label">
#msg.LongMessage
</div>
<br />
}
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Save" />
</p>
</fieldset>
}

Answer 1

You need to include BuzzMessages properties within a form element. Since it's not editable, you'd probably want to use hiddens. There are two ways to do this. Easiest is instead of doing a foreach loop, do a for loop and insert them by index.
#for (int i =0; i<Model.BuzzMessages.Count(); i++v)
{
<div class="editor-label">
#Model.BuzzMessages[i].LongMessage
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.BuzzMessages[i].LongMessage);
</div>
<br />
}
but to do this you'd need to use an IList instead of an IEnumerable in your view model to access by index.
Alternatively, you could create an Editor Template named after your BuzzMessages class (whatever its name is).
#model BuzzMessagesClass
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.LongMessages)
<!-- Include other properties here if any -->
and then in your main page
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.BuzzMessages)
Check out http://coding-in.net/asp-net-mvc-3-how-to-use-editortemplates/ or search stack overflow if the details of editor templates confuse you.

Answer 2

Just like any HTML POST method, you have to get the data back to the Controller somehow. Just simply "showing" the data on the page doesn't rebind it.
You have to put the data in an input (or a control that will post back) to the appropriate model property name.
So, if you have a model property with name FirstName and you want this data to be rebound to the model on POST, you have to supply it back to the model by placing an "input hidden" (or similar control that postbacks) with the ID of FirstName will rebind that property to the model on POST.
Hope that explains it.

Answer 3

#foreach (var msg in Model.BuzzMessages)
{
<div class="editor-label">
#msg.LongMessage
<input type="hidden" name="BuzzMessages.LongMessage" value="#msg.LongMessage" />
</div>
}
It will post array of LongMessages. Get values like this:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult confirmation(TimeLineModel model, FormCollection collection)
{
var longMessages = collection["BuzzMessages.LongMessage"];
}