Using ASP.NET MVC v2 EditorFor and DisplayFor with IEnumerable Generic types

Question

I have a IList as a property named Tags in my model. How do I name the files for display and editor templates to respect it when I call

Answer 1

You could create a custom collection type and name the editor to match that.

Assuming you created custom collection called Tags you could change your model to:

class MyModel
{
   Tags Tags { get; protected set;}
}

Then you would name your editor and display templates Tags.ascx.

Which would make your view code work like you wanted:

<%= Html.EditorFor(t => t.Tags) %>

For the custom collection you basically just create a wrapper around an implementation of a generic collection and expose it's methods and properties:

public class Tags : IList
{
    //Use a private List to do all the 
    //heavy lifting.
    private List _tags;

    public Tags()
    {
        _tags = new List();
    }

    public Tags(IEnumerable tags)
    {
        _tags = new List(tags);
    }

    #region Implementation of IEnumerable

    public IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _tags.GetEnumerator();
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _tags.GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion

    #region Implementation of ICollection

    public void Add(Tag tag)
    {
        _tags.Add(tag);
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        _tags.Clear();
    }

    public bool Contains(Tag tag)
    {
        return _tags.Contains(tag);
    }

    public void CopyTo(Tag[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        _tags.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    }

    public bool Remove(Tag tag)
    {
        return _tags.Remove(tag);
    }

    public int Count
    {
        get { return _tags.Count; }
    }

    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    #endregion

    #region Implementation of IList

    public int IndexOf(Tag tag)
    {
        return _tags.IndexOf(tag);
    }

    public void Insert(int index, Tag tag)
    {
        _tags.Insert(index, tag);
    }

    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        _tags.RemoveAt(index);
    }

    public Tag this[int index]
    {
        get { return _tags[index]; }
        set { _tags[index] = value; }
    }

    #endregion
}