Get generated element "name" attribute for HtmlHelper extension - asp.net-mvc-3

I am building my own HtmlHelper extensions for standard DropDownLists that appear on many of my views. On other elements I use "EditorFor" and razor generates the proper element "name" attribute for me since that is important for it to be bound to the model correctly. How would I get the correct name in my View so that my Helpers name the element appropriately?
Currently my view code looks like this, but I'd rather not hardcode the element name if I can avoid it.
<tr>
<td class="editor-label">
County:
</td>
<td class="editor-field">
#Html.CountyDropDown("CountyID")
</td>
</tr>
Here is my extension code (Which returns the list of Counties based on the current user's region):
<Extension()> _
Public Function CountyDropDown(ByVal html As HtmlHelper, ByVal name As String) As MvcHtmlString
Dim db As New charityContainer
Dim usvm As New UserSettingsViewModel
Dim ddl As IEnumerable(Of SelectListItem)
ddl = (From c In db.Counties Where c.RegionId = usvm.CurrentUserRegionID
Select New SelectListItem() With {.Text = c.Name, .Value = c.Id})
Return html.DropDownList(name, ddl)
End Function

I'm a dummy I already knew how to do this:
1) Gave my Id value a UIHint in the ViewModel like so:
<UIHint("County")>
Public Property CountyId As Nullable(Of Integer)
2) Changed my View to just use EditorFor like this:
<td class="editor-field">
#Html.EditorFor(Function(x) x.CountyId)
</td>
3) Made a "County.vbhtml" partial-view in my EditorTemplates folder:
#ModelType Nullable(Of Integer)
#Html.DropDownList("", Html.CountySelectList(Model))
4) Returned just an IEnumerable(Of SelectListItem) from my helper, not the entire drop down html:
Public Function CountySelectList(Optional ByVal selectedId As Nullable(Of Integer) = 0) As IEnumerable(Of SelectListItem)
Dim db As New charityContainer
Dim usvm As New UserSettingsViewModel
Dim CurrentUserRegionID = usvm.CurrentUserRegionID
Dim ddl As IEnumerable(Of SelectListItem)
ddl = (From c In db.Counties Where c.RegionId = CurrentUserRegionID
Select New SelectListItem() With {.Text = c.Name, .Value = c.Id, .Selected = If(c.Id = selectedId, True, False)})
Return ddl
End Function

Related

DropDownList Initial Value Duplicated - MVC 5

I have a #foreach in my View that makes a table. Each row has two items within it's td. When I click my Edit button, the visible item's in a row disappear (DislayFor's) and the hidden items in the row appear (DropDownList)
View Code
<td class="col-md-3">
<span class="item-display">
<span style="font-size: 17px">
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Movie.Name)
</span>
</span>
<span class="item-field">
#Html.DropDownList("movieID", item.Movie.Name)
</span>
</td>
By doing this I can select a new value in the DropDownList and then Save that change to my Database (then hiding the DropDownList and unhiding the DisplayFor.
Everything works fine, however I have an issue with the initally selected value, it appears twice with the initial value having an actual value of 0 (which relates to nothing in the DB).
Picture Example
QUESTION:
Right now my dropdown add's a value upon clicking Edit, the item initially selected has the correct name but it is given the index of 0 (which is invalid for my database).
I want to have the initially selected item to NOT be added, but rather to set the selector of the dropdown to the CORRECT INDEX of the appropriate item. I am not sure why it duplicates my selected item twice.
Controller Code
public ActionResult Index(string Filter, string searchString)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchString) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(Filter) || (Int32.Parse(Filter) == 0))
{
ViewBag.employeeID = new SelectList(db.Employees, "ID", "Name", );
ViewBag.movieID = new SelectList(db.Movies, "ID", "Name", initiallySelectedValue);
ViewBag.roleID = new SelectList(db.Roles, "ID", "RoleType");
var movieemployees = db.MovieEmployees.Include(m => m.Employee).Include(m => m.Movie).Include(m => m.Role);
return View(movieemployees.ToList().OrderBy(x => x.Employee.Name));
}
else
{
ViewBag.employeeID = new SelectList(db.Employees, "ID", "Name");
ViewBag.movieID = new SelectList(db.Movies, "ID", "Name");
ViewBag.roleID = new SelectList(db.Roles, "ID", "RoleType");
var parameter = Int32.Parse(Filter);
return View(db.MovieEmployees.Include(m => m.Employee).Include(m => m.Movie).Include(m => m.Role).Where(x => (parameter == 1 && x.Movie.Name.Contains(searchString)) || (parameter == 2 && x.Employee.Name.Contains(searchString)) || (parameter == 3 && x.Role.RoleType.Contains(searchString))).Distinct().ToList().OrderBy(x => x.Employee.Name));
}
}
Your understanding of the parameters for DropDownList isn't quite correct, but you're close! The second parameter for DropDownList (in your case item.Movie.Name) is adding an option label. If you replaced that with a hard-coded string that would serve as a good example of what it's doing (you would see that string as the first option of every select input).
It sounds to me like you want to delete that last parameter since it will only end up serving as a duplicate. Your code would simply look like this:
#Html.DropDownList("movieID")
The important part of your code is where you're building the object that you're storing in ViewData with the key movieID. You didn't post your controller code, but I imagine it looks something like:
var movies = movieRepository.GetAllMovies();
ViewData["movieID"] = new SelectList(movies, "Name", "Id", initiallySelectedValue);
Where Name and Id are the names of properties on the movie object and initiallySelectedValue is rather self explanatory.
Edit
Here is an example of how I would go about solving your problem:
Controller
public ActionResult Index() {
//Get all the possible movies that can be selected
var movies = movieRepository.GetAllMovies();
//Get a list of employees with their related favorite movie record
var employeesWithFavoriteMovie = movieRepository.GetEmployeesWithMovie();
var employeeModels = new List<EmployeeModel>();
//Iterate through the list of employees and their favorite movie, and build the model
foreach (var employeeWithFavoriteMovie in employeesWithFavoriteMovie) {
employeeModels.Add(new EmployeeModel() {
FirstName = employeeWithFavoriteMovie.FirstName,
FavoriteMovieId = employeeWithFavoriteMovie.Movie.Id,
MovieSelectList = new SelectList(movies, "Name", "Id", employeeWithFavoriteMovie.Movie.Id)
});
}
return View(employeeModels);
}
View
#model IEnumerable<WebApplication1.Controllers.EmployeeModel>
#foreach (var employeeModel in Model) {
#Html.DropDownList("Test", employeeModel.MovieSelectList)
}
Notice how a SelectList was built for each employee and that each list is then populated with that employees current favorite movie id. This will now put you in a position to have a properly built SelectList for each employee.
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.classmasterd_HCF[i].TD_TEACHER, new SelectList(Model.Teacher, "ParamKey", "ParamValue", Model.classmasterd_HCF[i].TD_TEACHER) as SelectList, new { #class = "form-control input-sm DtlField EditableCtrl", #style = "min-width:100%;", #disabled = "disabled" })
where Teacher in Model.Teacher is a model with code in paramKey and description in paramvalue. Selected value saved in TD_TEACHER field

Telerik Grid - Get master ID in details view

I have a master/detail grid where I do inserts on both the master and detail views. When I'm in detail mode, I need to obtain the master ID value but I can't seem to obtain the value.
I first obtain the inserteditem in the InsertCommand:
Dim inserteditem As GridDataInsertItem = DirectCast(e.Item, GridDataInsertItem)
And then I obtain an instance of the parent (master) view:
Dim parenttable As GridTableView = inserteditem.OwnerTableView.ParentItem.OwnerTableView
I just can't seem to get to the master key value, however. Anyone know what I should do?
Please try with the below code snippet.
.ASPX
<MasterTableView CommandItemDisplay="Top" DataKeyNames="ID" Name="parent">
<DetailTables>
<telerik:GridTableView Name="Child" DataKeyNames="Name">
</telerik:GridTableView>
</DetailTables>
<Columns>
........
........
</Columns>
</MasterTableView>
.ASPX.VB
Protected Sub RadGrid1_InsertCommand(sender As Object, e As GridCommandEventArgs)
If e.Item.OwnerTableView.Name = "Child" Then
Dim item As GridDataInsertItem = TryCast(e.Item, GridDataInsertItem)
Dim pitem As GridDataItem = TryCast(item.OwnerTableView.ParentItem, GridDataItem)
' Parent Item DataKey Here
Dim strID As String = pitem.GetDataKeyValue("ID").ToString()
End If
End Sub

ASP.NET MVC DropDownListFor not selecting value from model

I'm using ASP.NET MVC 3, and just ran into a 'gotcha' using the DropDownListFor HTML Helper.
I do this in my Controller:
ViewBag.ShippingTypes = this.SelectListDataRepository.GetShippingTypes();
And the GetShippingTypes method:
public SelectList GetShippingTypes()
{
List<ShippingTypeDto> shippingTypes = this._orderService.GetShippingTypes();
return new SelectList(shippingTypes, "Id", "Name");
}
The reason I put it in the ViewBag and not in the model (I have strongly typed models for each view), is that I have a collection of items that renders using an EditorTemplate, which also needs to access the ShippingTypes select list.
Otherwise I need to loop through the entire collection, and assign a ShippingTypes property then.
So far so good.
In my view, I do this:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.RequiredShippingTypeId, ViewBag.ShippingTypes as SelectList)
(RequiredShippingTypeId is of type Int32)
What happens is, that the value of RequiredShippingTypeId is not selected in the drop down.
I came across this: http://web.archive.org/web/20090628135923/http://blog.benhartonline.com/post/2008/11/24/ASPNET-MVC-SelectList-selectedValue-Gotcha.aspx
He suggests that MVC will lookup the selected value from ViewData, when the select list is from ViewData. I'm not sure this is the case anymore, since the blog post is old and he's talking about MVC 1 beta.
A workaround that solves this issue is this:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.RequiredShippingTypeId, new SelectList(ViewBag.ShippingTypes as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>, "Value", "Text", Model.RequiredShippingTypeId.ToString()))
I tried not to ToString on RequiredShippingTypeId at the end, which gives me the same behavior as before: No item selected.
I'm thinking this is a datatype issue. Ultimately, the HTML helper is comparing strings (in the Select List) with the Int32 (from the RequiredShippingTypeId).
But why does it not work when putting the SelectList in the ViewBag -- when it works perfectly when adding it to a model, and doing this inside the view:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Product.RequiredShippingTypeId, Model.ShippingTypes)
The reason why this doesn't work is because of a limitation of the DropDownListFor helper: it is able to infer the selected value using the lambda expression passed as first argument only if this lambda expression is a simple property access expression. For example this doesn't work with array indexer access expressions which is your case because of the editor template.
You basically have (excluding the editor template):
#Html.DropDownListFor(
m => m.ShippingTypes[i].RequiredShippingTypeId,
ViewBag.ShippingTypes as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>
)
The following is not supported: m => m.ShippingTypes[i].RequiredShippingTypeId. It works only with simple property access expressions but not with indexed collection access.
The workaround you have found is the correct way to solve this problem, by explicitly passing the selected value when building the SelectList.
This might be silly, but does adding it to a variable in your view do anything?
var shippingTypes = ViewBag.ShippingTypes;
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Product.RequiredShippingTypeId, shippingTypes)
you can create dynamic viewdata instead of viewbag for each dropdownlist field for complex type.
hope this will give you hint how to do that
#if (Model.Exchange != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < Model.Exchange.Count; i++)
{
<tr>
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.Exchange[i].companyExchangeDtlsId)
<td>
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Exchange[i].categoryDetailsId, ViewData["Exchange" + i] as SelectList, " Select category", new { #id = "ddlexchange", #class = "form-control custom-form-control required" })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Exchange[i].categoryDetailsId, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
</td>
<td>
#Html.TextAreaFor(model => model.Exchange[i].Address, new { #class = "form-control custom-form-control", #style = "margin:5px;display:inline" })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Exchange[i].Address, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
</td>
</tr>
}
}
ViewModel CompanyDetail = companyDetailService.GetCompanyDetails(id);
if (CompanyDetail.Exchange != null)
for (int i = 0; i < CompanyDetail.Exchange.Count; i++)
{
ViewData["Exchange" + i]= new SelectList(companyDetailService.GetComapnyExchange(), "categoryDetailsId", "LOV", CompanyDetail.Exchange[i].categoryDetailsId);
}
I was just hit by this limitation and figured out a simple workaround. Just defined extension method that internally generates SelectList with correct selected item.
public static class HtmlHelperExtensions
{
public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListForEx<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
IEnumerable<SelectListItem> selectList,
object htmlAttributes = null)
{
var selectedValue = expression.Compile().Invoke(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model);
var selectListCopy = new SelectList(selectList.ToList(), nameof(SelectListItem.Value), nameof(SelectListItem.Text), selectedValue);
return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, selectListCopy, htmlAttributes);
}
}
The best thing is that this extension can be used the same way as original DropDownListFor:
#for(var i = 0; i < Model.Items.Count(); i++)
{
#Html.DropDownListForEx(x => x.Items[i].CountryId, Model.AllCountries)
}
There is an overloaded method for #html.DropdownList for to handle this.
There is an alternative to set the selected value on the HTML Dropdown List.
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Section[b].State,
new SelectList(Model.StatesDropdown, "value", "text", Model.Section[b].State))
I was able to get the selected value from the model.
"value", "text", Model.Section[b].State this section the above syntax adds the selected attribute to the value loaded from the Controller

Dropdown list filled from repository

I have an MVC3 drop down list that come from this code on the controller.
private SelectList progCodesList = new SelectList(new[] { "Description", "Requirements", "Development", "Testing", "Documentation" });
How can I fill the fields from a repository, to build the drop down dynamically?
Thanks.
Assuming you have the progCodes in a database table, with progCode having the text, and progCodeId with a unique id, then you can read the table into a list of SelectListItem as follows:
private DbContext _db = new DbContext();
var progCodesList = _db.progCodes.Select(x => new SelectListIem()
{
Text = x.progCode,
value = x.progCodeId
}).ToList();
You can then pass this List<SelectListItem> to your view either in a strongly-typed model, or using the ViewBag.
You need to pass the progCodesList to the ViewBag in your controller method using something like:
ViewBag.ProgCodeId = progCodesList;
Then in your view, you need to fill the drop down like this:
<div class="editor-label">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.ProgCodeId, "ProgCode")
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
#Html.DropDownList("ProgCodeId", String.Empty)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ProgCodeId)
</div>

dropdownlist set selected value in MVC3 Razor

Here is my model:
public class NewsCategoriesModel {
public int NewsCategoriesID { get; set; }
public string NewsCategoriesName { get; set; }
}
My controller:
public ActionResult NewsEdit(int ID, dms_New dsn) {
dsn = (from a in dc.dms_News where a.NewsID == ID select a).FirstOrDefault();
var categories = (from b in dc.dms_NewsCategories select b).ToList();
var selectedValue = dsn.NewsCategoriesID;
SelectList ListCategories = new SelectList(categories, "NewsCategoriesID", "NewsCategoriesName",selectedValue);
// ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID = new SelectList(categories as IEnumerable<dms_NewsCategory>, "NewsCategoriesID", "NewsCategoriesName", dsn.NewsCategoriesID);
ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID = ListCategories;
return View(dsn);
}
And then my view:
#Html.DropDownList("NewsCategoriesID", (SelectList)ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID)
When i run, the DropDownList does not select the value I set.. It is always selecting the first option.
You should use view models and forget about ViewBag Think of it as if it didn't exist. You will see how easier things will become. So define a view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public int SelectedCategoryId { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Categories { get; set; }
}
and then populate this view model from the controller:
public ActionResult NewsEdit(int ID, dms_New dsn)
{
var dsn = (from a in dc.dms_News where a.NewsID == ID select a).FirstOrDefault();
var categories = (from b in dc.dms_NewsCategories select b).ToList();
var model = new MyViewModel
{
SelectedCategoryId = dsn.NewsCategoriesID,
Categories = categories.Select(x => new SelectListItem
{
Value = x.NewsCategoriesID.ToString(),
Text = x.NewsCategoriesName
})
};
return View(model);
}
and finally in your view use the strongly typed DropDownListFor helper:
#model MyViewModel
#Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.SelectedCategoryId,
Model.Categories
)
just in case someone comes with this question, this is how I do it, please forget about the repository object, I'm using the Repository Pattern, you can use your object context to retrieve the entities. And also don't pay attention to my entity names, my entity type Action has nothing to do with an MVC Action.
Controller:
ViewBag.ActionStatusId = new SelectList(repository.GetAll<ActionStatus>(), "ActionStatusId", "Name", myAction.ActionStatusId);
Pay attention that the last variable of the SelectList constructor is the selected value (object selectedValue)
Then this is my view to render it:
<div class="editor-label">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.ActionStatusId, "ActionStatus")
</div>
<div class="editor-field">
#Html.DropDownList("ActionStatusId")
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ActionStatusId)
</div>
I think it is pretty simple, I hope this helps! :)
I drilled down the formation of the drop down list instead of using #Html.DropDownList(). This is useful if you have to set the value of the dropdown list at runtime in razor instead of controller:
<select id="NewsCategoriesID" name="NewsCategoriesID">
#foreach (SelectListItem option in ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID)
{
<option value="#option.Value" #(option.Value == ViewBag.ValueToSet ? "selected='selected'" : "")>#option.Text</option>
}
</select>
Well its very simple in controller you have somthing like this:
-- Controller
ViewBag.Profile_Id = new SelectList(db.Profiles, "Id", "Name", model.Profile_Id);
--View (Option A)
#Html.DropDownList("Profile_Id")
--View (Option B) --> Send a null value to the list
#Html.DropDownList("Profile_Id", null, "-- Choose --", new { #class = "input-large" })
Replace below line with new updated working code:
#Html.DropDownList("NewsCategoriesID", (SelectList)ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID)
Now Implement new updated working code:
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.NewsCategoriesID, ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID as List<SelectListItem>, new {name = "NewsCategoriesID", id = "NewsCategoriesID" })
I want to put the correct answer in here, just in case others are having this problem like I was. If you hate the ViewBag, fine don't use it, but the real problem with the code in the question is that the same name is being used for both the model property and the selectlist as was pointed out by #RickAndMSFT
Simply changing the name of the DropDownList control should resolve the issue, like so:
#Html.DropDownList("NewsCategoriesSelection", (SelectList)ViewBag.NewsCategoriesID)
It doesn't really have anything to do with using the ViewBag or not using the ViewBag as you can have a name collision with the control regardless.
I prefer the lambda form of the DropDownList helper - see MVC 3 Layout Page, Razor Template, and DropdownList
If you want to use the SelectList, then I think this bug report might assist - http://aspnet.codeplex.com/workitem/4932
code bellow, get from, goes
Controller:
int DefaultId = 1;
ViewBag.Person = db.XXXX
.ToList()
.Select(x => new SelectListItem {
Value = x.Id.ToString(),
Text = x.Name,
Selected = (x.Id == DefaultId)
});
View:
#Html.DropDownList("Person")
Note:
ViewBag.Person and #Html.DropDownList("Person") name should be as in view model
To have the IT department selected, when the departments are loaded from tblDepartment table, use the following overloaded constructor of SelectList class. Notice that we are passing a value of 1 for selectedValue parameter.
ViewBag.Departments = new SelectList(db.Departments, "Id", "Name", "1");
For anyone that dont want to or dont make sense to use dropdownlistfor, here is how I did it in jQuery with .NET MVC set up.
Front end Javascript -> getting data from model:
var settings = #Html.Raw(Json.Encode(Model.GlobalSetting.NotificationFrequencySettings));
SelectNotificationSettings(settings);
function SelectNotificationSettings(settings) {
$.each(settings, function (i, value) {
$("#" + value.NotificationItemTypeId + " option[value=" + value.NotificationFrequencyTypeId + "]").prop("selected", true);
});
}
In razor html, you going to have few dropdownlist
#Html.DropDownList(NotificationItemTypeEnum.GenerateSubscriptionNotification.ToString,
notificationFrequencyOptions, optionLabel:=DbRes.T("Default", "CommonLabels"),
htmlAttributes:=New With {.class = "form-control notification-item-type", .id = Convert.ToInt32(NotificationItemTypeEnum.GenerateSubscriptionNotification)})
And when page load, you js function is going to set the selected option based on value that's stored in #model.
Cheers.

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