Creating Dropdown List in MVC3 - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I am trying to create a dropdown list to display all the value in a custom collection class
such as
public class MyCustomClassCollection
{
public List<MyCustomClass> {get;set;}
}
I want it to show the Description:string of each MyCustomClass
I tried
<%: Html.DropDownList "Description", MyCustomClass %>
Resharper suggests that I cast MyCustomClass to IEnemerable
but the server returns an unable to cast error.
Any Idea how I can create this DropDownList?
__Modification___
public class ViewModel
{
public Detail detail { get; set; }
}
public class Detail //Inherited from webservce
{
public CustomClassCollection {get;set;}
.... Other Properties, a.k.a Custom Classes
}
public class CustomClassCollection
{
public List<CustomClass> {get;set;}
}
public class CustomClass {
public int Id {get;set;}
public string Description{get;set;}
... other properties
}
public ActionResult Index(int? id, DateTime? date)
{
if (id.Equals(null))
id = ######### ;
if (date.Equals(null))
date = DateTime.Today;
var vm = new ViewModel
{
Detail = _repository.Detail((int)id,(DateTime)date)
};
return View(vm);
}

Answer 1

The second argument of the DropDownList helper must be an IEnumerable<SelectListItem> or a SelectList which implements this interface for that matter. So in your controller action organize in such a way that you convert your custom collection into an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>. As always you could start by writing a view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public string SelectedDescription { get; set; }
public SelectList Descriptions { get; set; }
}
and then have your controller action query the custom list and populate the view model which will be passed to the view:
public ActionResult Index()
{
var descriptions = yourCustomCollection.MyCustomClass.Select(x => new
{
Value = x.Description,
Text = x.Description
});
var model = new MyViewModel
{
Descriptions = new SelectList(descriptions, "Value", "Text")
};
return View(model);
}
and finally in your strongly typed view:
<%= Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.SelectedDescription, Model.Decriptions) %>
UPDATE:
After posting your updated models (which by the way are still incomplete and impossible to compile as you haven't provided any property names), here's an example:
public class ViewModel
{
public int SelectedId { get; set; }
public Detail Detail { get; set; }
}
public class Detail
{
public CustomClassCollection MyCollection { get; set; }
}
public class CustomClassCollection
{
public List<CustomClass> CustomClass { get; set; }
}
public class CustomClass
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
var vm = new ViewModel
{
Detail = new Detail
{
MyCollection = new CustomClassCollection
{
CustomClass = new List<CustomClass>
{
new CustomClass
{
Id = 1,
Description = "description 1",
},
new CustomClass
{
Id = 2,
Description = "description 2",
},
new CustomClass
{
Id = 3,
Description = "description 3",
},
}
}
}
};
return View(vm);
}
}
and in the view:
<%= Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.SelectedId,
new SelectList(Model.Detail.MyCollection.CustomClass, "Id", "Description")
) %>
What you have to understand in order to define a dropdown list in ASP.NET MVC ius that you need 2 things:
A scalar property to bind the selected value to (SelectedId in my example)
A collection to bind the list to (Model.Detail.MyCollection.CustomClass in the example)