Multiple roles in Asp.net MVC3 - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I have an admin site for the admin to create users. Here he has to chose the roles for the user - like the Asp.NET configuration site. I made 3 checkboxes with different roles.
[Authorize(Roles = "Admin")]
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Register(RegisterModel model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
var Rolemodel = model.RolesContainer;
// Attempt to register the user
MembershipCreateStatus createStatus;
Membership.CreateUser(model.UserName, model.Password, model.Email, null, null, true, null, out createStatus);
if (createStatus == MembershipCreateStatus.Success)
{
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(model.UserName, false /* createPersistentCookie */);
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
}
else
{
ModelState.AddModelError("", ErrorCodeToString(createStatus));
}
}
// If we got this far, something failed, redisplay form
return View(model);
}
[Authorize(Roles = "Admin")]
public ActionResult Register()
{
List<SelectListItem> tempRoles = new List<SelectListItem>();
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem{ Text = "Admin", Selected = false, Value = "Admin" });
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem{ Text = "Production", Selected = false, Value = "Production"});
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem{ Text = "Sale", Selected = false, Value = "Sale"});
return View(new RegisterModel { RolesContainer = tempRoles });
}
----View--------
#{ foreach (var item in Model.RolesContainer)
{
#Html.DisplayFor(m => item.Text)
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => item.Selected)
}
}
When I check them and submit, I get to the breakpoint in my Register action, but the RolesContainer is null at this point - can anyone tell me why this is?

Answer 1

I copied and pasted your code (except the cshtml) into the following files and it works as expected.
HomeController.cs
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using MvcApplication1.Models;
namespace MvcApplication1.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : Controller
{
//
// GET: /Home/
public ActionResult Index()
{
List<SelectListItem> tempRoles = new List<SelectListItem>();
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Admin",
Selected = false,
Value = "Admin" });
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Production",
Selected = false,
Value = "Production" });
tempRoles.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Sale",
Selected = false,
Value = "Sale" });
return View(new RegisterModel { RolesContainer = tempRoles });
}
}
}
RegisterModel
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace MvcApplication1.Models
{
public class RegisterModel
{
[Required]
[Display(Name = "Brugernavn")]
public string UserName { get; set; }
[Required]
[DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]
[Display(Name = "Email adresse")]
public string Email { get; set; }
public List<SelectListItem> RolesContainer { get; set;}
}
}
Home/Index.cshtml
#model MvcApplication1.Models.RegisterModel
#{
foreach (var item in Model.RolesContainer)
{
#Html.DisplayFor(m => item.Text)
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => item.Selected)
}
}
Most likely there is something wrong in your Register.cshtml file, of which we don't have to validate.

Answer 2

Currently when you are assigning the value to RolesContainer it has not been initialised. You simply need to initialise it in the constructor of your class:
public class RegisterModel
{
public RegisterModel() {
RolesContainer = new List<SelectListItem>;
}
// rest of your code
}
Alternatively you could create a constructor which accepts the List<> as a parameter, but the above method will work for your current code structure.

Answer 3

If I understand well (may be I'm totally wrong), the model you post to httppost register (RegisterModel) doesn't contains the RolesContainer you expect. I think, asp.net mvc is not able to match multiple checkboxes with a List<SelectListItem>, a ListBox should be better