Steve Sanderson has a great post on how to perform list binding with MVC2 and custom HTML Prefix Scoping. However, it did not demo the out of box functionality that MVC2 provides, so I’m going to do that here. Please note, I’m using MVC2 RC2 in this example. At the end if this post you will be able to download the solution and run/debut it on your machine.
The App
I’m going to be using Steves sample app. When you first first fire it up you will be presented with a link to go to Donn’s list binding demo. This demo emulates using the built in features of MVC2 to great an editable grid or list. It will look like this:
After clicking on that link you will be presented with a grid / list that is editable. I’m going to use the EditorFor() expression based input builder and some custom editor for templates to layout the grid. In the end, the grid will look like this (yes, not pretty, but it demonstrates what can be done with some of the editor templates.
This is a order list that is set up in the controller manually. The Controller invokes the index action with a customer view model. The customer object has a list of orders, and each order has a list of line items. The objects look like this:
Customer
Order
LineItem
Solution Layout
The solution is lain out in a way that we can render the Index.aspx, which will render an editor for the order. The OrderRow.ascx file is the file we use to display the editor. We do that in the Index.aspx page like so:
These editor templates are stored in your controllers view folder, under a folder called “EditorTemplates” as shown below:
The OrderRow.ascx Editor will handle how each editor is formatted for editing:
We will be using another editor template, “LineItemRow” to format how each line item should be edited. We are using one editor to create another editor, cool!
Here’s the LineItemRow.ascx (which is called from above via the “LineItemRow” parameter in the EditorFor expression based call:
Incremental Sequencing
The reason the list binding works is because we’re using incremental sequencing while building our editor. We’re using for loops. This allows MVC to know where it’s at during the creation of the form. What does this mean in plain English? MVC will generate incremental name and id’s in the HTML, which, when posting back, the DefaultModelBinder will be able to bind back into the complex object type.
Lets delve into this a bit further. This screen is generated with incremental id’s, and the id’s are shown below in the screen shot for ease of understanding:
The raw HTML looks like this (click to enlarge):
Using the incremental sequencing and editor templates allows us to change the values and post them back to the form.
Example
Lets change the name of “Sneakers” to “Shoes”. Then we’ll post the form. Here’s what we see in the post (via the debugger):
Conclusion
Now you can edit the list, post the new updated results and persist them. Fairly simple.
Download the Sample Project (VS2010)
If you’re using VS2008, you can copy the files into a VS2008 MVC2 RC2 Project (minus the project) and it should work.
I'd like to see this with a DropDownList.
You can do this (do it at my current client actually). However, you'll need to re-hydrate your select list's (drop down list items) via a custom model binder. When the model is posted, intercept it with the model binder, populate the list(s) and mark the selected item and then continue on. 🙂
hi Donn!
the example is great but it miss the way we can add a new row to the collection. How can you do that and have a the right sequence Id for the new fields?
i try to make it via jQuery and ajax!
thank you very much if you have a solution for that.
Steve Sanderson has an example of this actually, you can find it here:
http://blog.stevensanderson.com/2010/01/28/edit…
Good luck!
I tried this model and when I added ValdiationMessageFor(m=>m[i].Name)
I got exception :The given key was not present in the dictionary.
Order: <%= Model.OrderNumber%> will cause postback OrderNumber to be NULL, change to:
Order:<%= Html.TextBoxFor(x=>x.OrderNumber) %>
Very true. I did not include that in the sampel because I did not need to
edit it. But if you need it for binding/look ups then you will need to
either put it in a hidden or text field. Thanks for the note!
maybe it is better to let user see the change he made instead of setting a break point,
I created a static method inside Customer class:
public static Customer Create() {
var customer = new Customer
{
FirstName = “Bob”,
LastName = “Jackson”
};
customer.Orders = new List<Order>
{
new Order
{
OrderNumber = “OR-001”,
LineItems = new List<LineItem>
{
new LineItem { Name = “Chocolate”, Price = 1.99, Quantity = 2},
new LineItem { Name = “Coffee”, Price = 4.99, Quantity = 1},
new LineItem { Name = “Chrome Rims”, Price = 199.99, Quantity = 4}
}
},
new Order
{
OrderNumber = “OR-002”,
LineItems = new List<LineItem>
{
new LineItem { Name = “Sneakers”, Price = 51.99, Quantity = 1},
new LineItem { Name = “Iced Out Grill Piece”, Price = 4099.99, Quantity = 1},
new LineItem { Name = “iPad”, Price = 4.99, Quantity = 4}
}
},
};
return customer;
}
Then in controller simply do this:
static Customer fCustomer = Customer.Create();
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View(fCustomer);
}
public ActionResult Save(Customer customer)
{
fCustomer = customer; //add this line for user change
// Set a breakpoint here and then investigate the customer, their orders and line items
// to see that they have changed.
Console.WriteLine(customer.Orders.Count());
Console.WriteLine(customer.Orders.First().LineItems.First().Name);
return RedirectToAction(“index”);
}
You could do any number of things with this example (and I'm glad you posted
what you did, thank you), but the code I posted was to illustrate how to
perform general list binding in MVC2 without complicating the example with
advanced usages. 🙂
Again, thank you for your additions though, I'm sure someone will glean
valuable information from this.
I am killing myself to just change the index which is view only that MVC2 creates to be an editable grid instead. Its much more elegant for a normal file.
I have already written the code to break up the table into pages including first, prior, next, and last links as well as searching etc..
Now all I need is a simple way to build up a structure like you have.
Is there any way you would consider doing a simple controller, view, etc.. that shows a table, and allows the data to be updated and posted back to the database?
I tried to use your approach, but I cannot get it to even execute, I am definitely missing something.
Hello, I am probably missing something obvious here but I cannot get any entries in this grid to actually change. I will be very specific. When I view the orders for 'Bob Jackson', I try to change the value for 'Qty' for 'Chocolate' from 2 to 4. I then click the 'Finished' button.
I would expect the Qty for Bob Jackson's chocolate to be 4. It has not changed. It is still 2. I am running VS2008. I downloaded and installed the ASP.NET MVC 2 RC 2 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7aba081a-19b9-44c4-a247-3882c8f749e3&displaylang=en. Am I missing what is supposed to be happening with this example?
Never mind. I see what I missed before.
Never know who you'll run into when googling a solution. Thanks Donn!
Glad it helped!
Are you able to use client side validation?
I have used your example and it worked like charm. Really great tutorial. Thanks.
But, i’am using the ADO.NET Entity Data Model and the generated Lists is of the type EntityCollection Which is unable to do this:
SomeEntityModel[i]
Do you know any way of using your example with EntityCollections?
Are you using a custom view model? If not, you might need to do that. You’d
have to map from a Model to a ViewModel. In that view model you’d have a
List and in your mapping you’d map from a EntityCollection to a List.
I’d use AutoMapper (automapper.codeplex.com) for that stuff. Good luck!
Yeah i use a custom View Model. Which contains a List, but the elements in the list is fetched directly from ADO.NET and is of type EntityCollection.
Hi,
Thanks for the article, it was really helpful. Although, I am having some problems when using “EditFor” helper the way you did. I am getting this error message: “Templates can be used only with field and property accessor expressions”. Mr Google tells me it’s to do with the fact that “EditFor can only accept immediate properties of the Model object” and x.OrderItem[i] is not an immediate property. So I wonder how did you manage to do that?
Thanks
Anderson uses a random generated guids for ids. It works in the example, but when I try to use it on Orders.items (the collection is inside one of the properties that is in the viewmodel) it doesn’t work. IF this should work – why do we need the sequenced numbers ?
I have a weird problem with checkboxes that is described here :
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4814769/asp-net-mvc2-checkboxfor-and-list-binding
Basically, I have 3 checkboxes that I set to true in the model. Then I unselect all of them and post the form.
In my action I set model to select the first one but in the view I get all of them unselected.
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I took it upon myself to convert this MVC2 project to MVC5 and Razor so that I can run it in Visual Studio 2013. I thought I’d share it with everyone in case someone might find it helpful to have it updated. You can find it on my GitHub: https://github.com/desertrambler/ListEditorDemoMvc5
Cindy, Thanks a bunch!