when passing a collection to EditorFor(), it generates invalid names for input elements

Question

I have a BookCreateModel which consists of book\'s plane info such as Title, PublishYear & etc plus a collection of book Authors (complex type) :

public clas         


        

Answer 1

Here's an extension method you can use which will render a partial view and use the correct HTML field prefix:

Extension Method

    /// 

    /// Helper method that renders the specified partial view as a HTML-encoded string using the specified
    /// collection as the model, with the intention that the partial view will use an editor template on the items
    /// in the collection.
    /// 
    /// the model type
    /// the property type
    /// the  instance
    /// the name of the partial view to render
    /// the model collection property expression
    /// the HTML-encoded string
    public static MvcHtmlString PartialContainingEditorForCollection
        (this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string partialViewName,
         Expression> collectionExpression)
        where TProperty : IEnumerable
    {
        var viewData = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData;
        var model = (TModel) viewData.Model;
        var collection = collectionExpression.Compile().Invoke(model);

        var htmlFieldPrefix = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(
            ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(collectionExpression));

        return htmlHelper.Partial(partialViewName, collection,
                                  new ViewDataDictionary
                                      {
                                          TemplateInfo = new TemplateInfo {HtmlFieldPrefix = htmlFieldPrefix}
                                      });
    }

Sample Usage

@Html.PartialContainingEditorForCollection("_TableWithSummary", m => Model.FormModel.ItemsToOrder)