How to pass variables across views and partial views in mvc 3? - asp.net-mvc-3

I am creating a breadcrumb partial view which takes in a collection of title/URL. The collection will be generated in action methods and would have to be available on the breadcrumb partial view.
I tried couple of ways to get it done and this is one among such: http://goo.gl/rMFlp
But some how i could not get it working. All i get is an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." Can you guys help me out?
{Updare}
Here is the code:
I created a Model class as follows
public class ShopModel
{
public Dictionary<string,string> Breadcrumb { get; set; }
}
Action Method
public ActionResult Index()
{
var breadcrumbCollection = new Dictionary<string,string>();
breadcrumbCollection.Add("/home","Home");
breadcrumbCollection.Add("/shop","Shop");
var model = new ShopModel() { Breadcrumb = breadcrumbCollection};
return View(model);
}
Model binding the view - Index
#Model NexCart.Model.Model.Custom.ShopModel
Finally here is the code on partial view:
<div>
#{
foreach (var item in #Model.Breadcrumb)
{
#item.Key
}
}

You haven't shown any code, so your question is impossible to answer. This being said here's how you could proceed. As always in an ASP.NET MVC application you start by defining a view model:
public class Breadcrumb
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Url { get; set; }
}
then you could write a controller action which will populate a collection of breadcrumbs and pass them to a partial view:
public class BreadcrumbController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
// TODO: pull the breadcrumbs from somewhere instead of hardcoding them
var model = new[]
{
new Breadcrumb { Title = "Google", Url = "http://www.google.com/" },
new Breadcrumb { Title = "Yahoo", Url = "http://www.yahoo.com/" },
new Breadcrumb { Title = "Bing", Url = "http://www.bing.com/" },
};
return PartialView(model);
}
}
then you could have a corresponding partial view which will render this model (~/Views/Breadcrumb/Index.cshtml):
#model IEnumerable<Breadcrumb>
<ul>
#Html.DisplayForModel()
</ul>
and the corresponding display template (~/Views/Breadcrumb/DisplayTemplates/Breadcrumb.cshtml):
#model Breadcrumb
<li>
#Model.Title
</li>
Now all that's left is to include this child action somewhere using the Html.Action helper. For example you could do this in the _Layout if this breadcrumb is repeated on each page:
#Html.Action("Index", "Breadcrumb")
But obviously it could also be done in any view.

Related

Updating only the partial view contained in a mvc 3 page?

I have a MVC 3 page that returns a list of user responses with a partial view called "memo" (which displays/add memos) for each response. When I add a memo to a response, it should update the db and the list of memos for that response. It should be partial page update via ajax, which effects only the partial view "memo".
The view Response.chtml that contains "memo":
#using (Html.BeginForm("Response", "User", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "UserResponse" }))
{
.... code removed ....
#foreach (var response in Model)
{
<div class="qna"><input type="text" id=#response.responseId value="#response.ResponseText" />
<div>#Html.Partial("_memo", response.responseId)</div>
}
.....
The partial page "_memo.chtml":
<div>add memo</div>
<ul id="memos">
#foreach (var memo in Model) {
<li>#memo.Text</li>
}
</ul>
<form method="post" id="memoForm"
action="#Url.Action("AddMemo")">
#Html.TextArea("Memo", new { rows = 5, cols = 50 })
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Add" />
</form>
Controller for view User/Response:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Response(id)
{
.....
return View(responses);
I just started with the code above, need help filling the blanks.
If I pass the response Id to the partial view, how do I pull the list of memos for that response? Will it involve ajax? (instead of ..Partial("_memo", response.memos))
How do I update the partial view via ajax call. What is ajax call (sample code) on the client side and how would the controller look? When the ajax call is successful, how do I update the list memos div="memos" to reflect the new memo?
Will the form action from Response conflict with form action of the partial view Memo?
Answers to Questions:
You shouldn't pass the responseId to the partial, you should pass the memo collection from your response object and make your partial view strongly typed to that collection.
See full code example below.
You don't need the form in the partial since you're making a simple ajax call to add the new memo. See full code example below.
This is a modified example from a project I am currently working on:
There is a bit of code to follow, so here goes:
This is my model. There are several sections on a career planning form, one of which is a section to select and update competencies. The SelectCompetencies model has a collection of competencies within it. The user will have the ability to add competencies. When they do, it will be added to the database and will update the list of competencies in the partial.
public class CareerPlanningFormViewModel
{
// code removed ...
public SelectCompetenciesModel SelectCompetencies { get; set; }
// code removed ...
}
public class SelectCompetenciesModel
{
public int CareerPlanningFormID { get; set; }
public IList<CompetencyModel> Competencies { get; set; }
public byte MaximumCompetenciesAllowed { get; set; }
}
public class CompetencyModel
{
public int CompetencyID { get; set; }
public int? CompetencyOptionID { get; set; }
public string ActionPlan { get; set; }
public IDictionary<int, string> CompetencyOptions { get; set; }
}
The main view of the career planning form: /Views/CPF/CareerPlanningForm.cshtml
#model MyNamespace.Models.CareerPlanningForm.CareerPlanningFormViewModel
<link rel="stylesheet" href="#Url.Content("~/Content/CreateCPF.css")" />
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
// other sections loaded here...
// code removed for brevity...
#Html.Partial("SelectCompetencies", Model.SelectCompetencies)
// other sections loaded here...
// code removed for brevity...
}
The SelectCompetencies partial: /Views/CPF/SelectCompetencies.cshtml
The user will fill in the new action plan text and click the add competency button.
That will post via ajax to CPFController/NewCompetencyTemplate
#model MyNamespace.Models.CareerPlanningForm.SelectCompetenciesModel
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.CareerPlanningFormID)
<h3>Select Competencies</h3>
<p class="guidance">
Select up to #Model.MaximumCompetenciesAllowed competencies to focus on improving.
</p>
<table id="CompetenciesTable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Competency</th>
<th>Action Plan:</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
#for (int i = 0; i < Model.Competencies.Count(); i++)
{
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Competencies[i])
}
</tbody>
<tfoot id="CompetenciesTableFooter" class="#(Model.Competencies.Count() < Model.MaximumCompetenciesAllowed ? "" : "hidden")">
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
#Html.TextArea("NewActionPlanText")
#Html.Button(ButtonType.Button, "Add Another Competency", "add", new { id = "AddCompetencyButton" })
</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
</table>
#section script
{
<script>
jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
var competenciesTableBody = $('#CompetenciesTable tbody'),
competenciesTableFooter = $('#CompetenciesTableFooter'),
addCompetencyButton = $('#AddCompetencyButton'),
newCompetencyTemplateUrl = '#Url.Content("~/CPF/NewCompetencyTemplate")',
count = competenciesTableBody.find('tr').length,
newActionPlanText = $('#NewActionPlanText'),
careerPlanningFormID = $('#CareerPlanningFormID');
addCompetencyButton.click(function () {
$.ajax({
url: newCompetencyTemplateUrl(),
type: 'POST',
data: {
careerPlanningFormID: careerPlanningFormID,
actionPlan: newActionPlanText,
itemCount: count
},
dataType: 'html',
success: function (data) {
var elements = $(data);
// other code removed here...
competenciesTableBody.append(elements);
// other code removed here...
}
});
});
});
</script>
}
Views/CPF/EditorTemplates/CompetencyModel.cshtml
#model MyNamespace.Models.CareerPlanningForm.CompetencyModel
<tr class="competency">
<td>
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.CompetencyOptionID, new SelectList(Model.CompetencyOptions, "Key", "Value"), "Select competency...")
</td>
<td>
#Html.TextAreaFor(m => m.ActionPlan, new { #class = "competencyActionPlan" })
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.CompetencyID)
</td>
</tr>
The controller containing the action to add the new competency: /Controllers/CPFController.cs
This will call the CareerPlanningFormService to add the new competency and will return a partial view for NewCompetencyTemplate that will render out the new competency
public class CPFController : Controller
{
private readonly ICareerPlanningFormService careerPlanningFormService;
public CPFController(ICareerPlanningFormService careerPlanningFormService)
{
this.careerPlanningFormService = careerPlanningFormService;
}
[HttpPost]
public PartialViewResult NewCompetencyTemplate(int careerPlanningFormID, int itemCount, string newActionPlanText)
{
var count = itemCount + 1;
// Even though we're only rendering a single item template, we use a list
// to trick MVC into generating fields with correctly indexed name attributes
// i.e. Competencies[1].ActionPlan
var model = new SelectCompetenciesModel
{
Competencies = Enumerable.Repeat<CompetencyModel>(null, count).ToList()
};
model.Competencies[count - 1] = this.careerPlanningFormService.BuildNewCompetencyModel(careerPlanningFormID, newActionPlanText);
return this.PartialView(model);
}
}
My service class: CareerPlanningFormService.cs
This handles the business logic and makes the calls to the repository to add the item to the database and returns a new CompetencyModel
public class CareerPlanningFormService : ICareerPlanningFormService
{
private readonly IMyRenamedRepository repository;
private readonly IPrincipal currentUser;
public CareerPlanningFormService(
IMyRenamedRepository repository,
IPrincipal currentUser)
{
this.repository = repository;
this.currentUser = currentUser;
}
public CompetencyModel BuildNewCompetencyModel(int careerPlanningFormID, string newActionPlanText)
{
var competency = new Competency
{
CareerPlanningFormID = careerPlanningFormID,
CompetencyOptionID = null,
ActionPlan = newActionPlanText
};
this.repository.Add(competency);
this.repository.Commit();
return new CompetencyModel
{
CompetencyID = competency.CompetencyID,
CompetencyOptionID = competency.CompetencyOptionID,
ActionPlan = competency.ActionPlan,
CompetencyOptions = this.GetCompetencyOptionsForCareerPlanningFormID(careerPlanningFormID)
};
}
}
Now, the partial for NewCompetencyTemplate: Views/CPF/NewCompetencyTemplate.cshtml
This is very simple, it simply renders the same editor template as above, for the last competency in the collection (which we just added)
#model MyNamespace.Models.CareerPlanningForm.SelectCompetenciesViewModel
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Competencies[Model.Competencies.Count() - 1])
When the ajax call succeeds, it will receive this partial back from the controller action method it called. It then takes the partial and appends it to the competencies table body
// snippet from ajax call above
competenciesTableBody.append(elements);
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any additional questions.
While you're correct that you can do it just by returning a partial view containing the updated content, you may also consider using jQuery's load method.
Look here, in particular at the "loading page fragments" section. Basically you can just get the original page again and jQuery will "extract" the content you want as long as it can be targetted by a selector (such as a div id).
Note, this solution is not suitable in all cases as there will be redundant markup in the response from the server because you will be discarding the rest of the page content and just using the updated part.

Sending new order back to MVC controller

using the JQuery sortable, and trying to send the new order back to my controller, but not having a whole lot of luck. My view is:
using (Ajax.BeginForm("EditTickerOrder", new AjaxOptions { InsertionMode = InsertionMode.Replace, HttpMethod = "POST", }))
{
<div id="editableticker">
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ProjectGUID)
<ul id="sortablediv">
#foreach (DGI.CoBRA.Tools.BussinessObjects.CollabLibrary.TickerObjects.Ticker t in Model)
{
<li class="ui-state-default" id="#t.pKeyGuid.ToString()">
<p>#Html.CheckBox(t.pKeyGuid.ToString(), t.Display, new { #class = "activechk" })
<span style="font-weight: bold">
#t.Text
</span>
</p>
</li>
}
</ul>
<input type="submit" value="Save New Ticker Order" />
}
and my controller is:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult EditTickerOrder(Guid ProjectGUID, List<string> items)
{
TickerCollectionModel TickerData = new TickerCollectionModel();
TickerData.ProjectGUID = ProjectGUID;
TickerData.ListAllBySession(ProjectGUID);
return PartialView("TickerList", TickerData);
}
yet the list<string> items is always null. Any ideas?
You are writing foreach loops, most definitely violating the naming conventions for your form input fields that the default model binder expects for working with collections. If you don't respect the established wire format, you cannot expect the default model binder to be able to rehydrate your models in the POST action.
In fact, why don't you use view models and editor templates? They make everything trivial in ASP.NET MVC.
So let's define a view model that will reflect your view requirements (or at least those shown in your question => you could of course enrich it with additional properties that you want to handle):
public class TickerViewModel
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public bool IsDisplay { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
}
public class ProjectViewModel
{
public Guid ProjectGUID { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<TickerViewModel> Tickers { get; set; }
}
and then a controller whose responsibility is to query your DAL layer, retrieve a domain model, map the domain model into the view model we defined for this view and pass the view model to the view. Inversely, the POST action receives a view model from the view, maps the view model back into some domain model, passes the domain model to your DAL layer for processing and renders some view or redirects to a success action:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
// TODO: those values come from a data layer of course
var model = new ProjectViewModel
{
ProjectGUID = Guid.NewGuid(),
Tickers = new[]
{
new TickerViewModel { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Text = "ticker 1" },
new TickerViewModel { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Text = "ticker 2" },
new TickerViewModel { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Text = "ticker 3" },
}
};
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(ProjectViewModel model)
{
// Everything will be correctly bound here => map the view model
// back into your domain model and pass the domain model to
// your DAL layer for processing ...
return Content("Thanks for submitting");
}
}
a view (it is worth noting that in this example I have used a standard form instead of AJAX but it is trivial to convert it into an AJAX form):
#model ProjectViewModel
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ProjectGUID)
<div id="editableticker">
<ul id="sortablediv">
#Html.EditorFor(x => x.Tickers)
</ul>
</div>
<button type="submit">OK</button>
}
and finally the corresponding editor template which will automatically be rendered for each element of the Tickers collection (~/Views/Home/EditorTemplates/TickerViewModel.cshtml):
#model TickerViewModel
<li class="ui-state-default">
<p>
#Html.CheckBoxFor(x => x.IsDisplay, new { #class = "activechk" })
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.IsDisplay, Model.Text)
#Html.HiddenFor(x => x.Text)
#Html.HiddenFor(x => x.Id)
</p>
</li>

ASP.NET MVC 3 - WebGrid - data source

I am new to ASP.NET MVC 3. I am trying to create a basic WebGrid to try and learn how this works. Currently, I have the following code:
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}
<h2>#ViewBag.Message</h2>
<p>
#{
var grid = new WebGrid();
}
#grid.GetHtml()
</p>
When I run this code, I receive an error that says: "A data source must be bound before this operation can be performed.". My question is, how do I bind this WebGrid to some client-side JSON. I don't have a back-end database. I'm just trying to learn about the WebGrid without having to wireup a database.
thanks!
As always in an ASP.NET MVC application you start with a view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public int Foo { get; set; }
public string Bar { get; set; }
}
then a controller:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new[]
{
new MyViewModel { Foo = 1, Bar = "bar 1" },
new MyViewModel { Foo = 2, Bar = "bar 2" },
new MyViewModel { Foo = 3, Bar = "bar 3" },
};
return View(model);
}
}
and finally a corresponding view (~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml):
#model IEnumerable<MyViewModel>
#{
var grid = new WebGrid(Model);
}
#grid.GetHtml()
So as you can see the data source of the grid is actually the view model that the controller populated and passed to the view. The actual data could come from anywhere. It's the controller's responsibility though to populate the view model and pass it to the view.
And to learn more about the WebGrid control you may take a look at the following article. And here's another one.

How do I use editortemplates in MVC3 for complex types?

I have two classes, Vat and Product. Product has a property of IVat. I am trying to use editor templates in MVC to display a dropdown list of all the Vat objects when creating/editing a Product. For the dear life of me I cannot get this working.
I have the following code which displays the dropdown but it does not set the Vat for the Product when the form gets submitted.
Controller:
IList<IVatRate> vatRates = SqlDataRepository.VatRates.Data.GetAllResults();
ViewBag.VatRates = new SelectList(vatRates, "Id", "Description");
Add.cshtml
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.VatRate.Id, "VatSelector", (SelectList)ViewBag.VatRates)
VatSelector.cshtml
#model SelectList
#Html.DropDownList(
String.Empty /* */,
(SelectList)ViewBag.Suppliers,
Model
)
I would be grateful if anyone can shed some light on this or even point me to a good example on the web somewhere...I have been stuck with this for quite a few days now.
I would use strongly typed views and view models as it makes things so much easier rather than ViewBag.
So start with a view model:
public class VatRateViewModel
{
public string SelectedVatRateId { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<IVatRate> Rates { get; set; }
}
then a controller:
public class HomeController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new VatRateViewModel
{
Rates = SqlDataRepository.VatRates.Data.GetAllResults()
};
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(VatRateViewModel model)
{
// model.SelectedVatRateId will contain the selected vat rate id
...
}
}
View:
#model VatRateViewModel
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.SelectedVatRateId,
new SelectList(Model.Rates, "Id", "Description")
)
<input type="submit" value="OK" />
}
And if you wanted to use editor template for the VatRateViewModel you could define one in ~/Views/Shared/EditorTemplates/VatRateViewModel.cshtml:
#model VatRateViewModel
#Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.SelectedVatRateId,
new SelectList(Model.Rates, "Id", "Description")
)
and then whenever somewhere you have a property of type VatRateViewModel you could simply:
#Html.EditorFor(x => x.SomePropertyOfTypeVatRateViewModel)
which would render the corresponding editor template.

How to handle Dropdownlist in mvc asp .net

this is my Model1 class
namespace chetan.Models
{
public class Model1
{
public string selectedItem { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> items { get; set; }
}
}
this is my controller class
public class HomeController : Controller
{
private rikuEntities rk = new rikuEntities();
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new Model1
{
items = new[]
{
new SelectListItem { Value = "Theory", Text = "Theory" },
new SelectListItem { Value = "Appliance", Text = "Appliance" },
new SelectListItem { Value = "Lab", Text = "Lab" }
}
}; return View(model);
}
public ActionResult viewToController(Model1 m)
{
string getSelectedName = m.selectedItem;
return Content(getSelectedName);
}
}
this is my view...
#using (Html.BeginForm("viewToController", "Home"))
{
#Html.ValidationSummary(true)
<fieldset>
<legend>emp</legend>
<div class="editor-field">
#Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.selectedItem,
new SelectList(Model.items, "Value", "Text"))
</div>
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Create" />
</p>
</fieldset>
}
i want to add a drop downlist and i want to use selected value in viewToController action of homeController. and there is also one error in View page is "an expression tree may not contain dynamic operation" in (x=>x.selectedItem). Please solve my problem .
I don't understnad what you exactly need. You want to dynamicly add items to the drop down from the database?
I'm big fan of jQuery. You can do everything what you want with HTML using jQuery. So if you are looking how to automaticly add items to the drop down, take look at this: How do I add options to a DropDownList using jQuery?

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