Pre-populate Create View - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

After selecting an accountholder I want to prepopulate my Order Create View with the properties of the selected accountholder.
My Controller Action so far:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(FormCollection values)
{
var accountHolder = from a in unitOfWork.AccountHolderRepository.Get(includeProperties: "AccountHolder")
where a.CustSName == values["Name"]
select a;
foreach (var a in accountHolder)
{
ViewBag.CustFName = a.CustFName;
ViewBag.CustSName = values["Name"];
ViewBag.CustPhone = a.CustPhone;
ViewBag.CustEmail = a.CustEmail;
}
return RedirectToAction("Create", "Order");
}

Answer 1

Not sure if I understand correctly what are you trying to accomplish here. I'm assuming :
Displaying Empty Create form
User provides value for AccountHolder (automatic submit happens?)
You return pre-populated form
Final Create step to preserve values to database
Am I right ?
If so, instantiate the model / viewmodel you're using in your create form (you're using strongly typed view right ?) and return it like this :
return View(yourobject); //Assuming the first view returned by GET request to Create action has all the properties in place
however that should happen only if the values are missing, right. so you might want to add some more logic to your controller to verify if pre-popullation or db.Save() is required.

Answer 2

As you're calling RedirectToAction to the Order controller, I assume you are now in the Create method of the accountholderController?
What's your question exactly? Without specifics, I can't give you much help.
Some notes though:
Try to search for the accountholder based on its ID in the database rather than the name. You are now trusting your enduser to enter the accountholder name exactly as it is entered in the database (same case, same punctuation). ID's are more precise and require less effort to get right.
Why use the Post-Create method if all you want to do is select an accountholder from a list and then open a Create view? It would be much wiser to have a dropdownlist containing all accountholders on your main page (or wherever you want to put it). something along the lines of
<select name="accountholderID">
<option value:"ID_of_accountholder">Name_of_accountholder</option>
...
</select>
Add a button next to that. Once an accountholder is selected and the button is clicked, call your (Get, not Post) Create method in the OrderController. Pass the accountholderID as a parameter. Your Create methoud should be something like:
public ActionResult Create(string accountholderID)
{
int ID = Convert.ToInt32(accountholderID);
ViewData["Accountholder"] = database.tbl_Accountholders.SingleorDefault(x=> x.Id == ID);
...
And in your Create View just access the values of your accountholder like so:
<% var accountholder = (accountholdertype)ViewData["Accountholder"]; %>
<span> Name is <%: accountholder.Name %> </span>
I think that should get you where you want to be :-)