Best way of implementing DropDownList in ASP.NET MVC 2?

Question

I am trying to understand the best way of implementing a DropDownList in ASP.NET MVC 2 using the DropDownListFor helper. This is a multi-part ques

Answer 1

Answering in parts:

1. The best way IMHO is to pass the list in the ViewModel like this:

   public SelectList Colors
   {
       get
       {
           // Getting a list of Colors from the database for example...
           List colors = GetColors().ToList();
   
           // Returning a SelectList to be used on the View side
           return new SelectList(colors, "Value", "Name");
       }
   }
   

2. To get a blank or default option like ( -- Pick a color -- ), you can do this on the view side:

   @Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Color, Model.Colors, "-- Pick a color --")
   

3. You'll have to fetch/populate the list again if it's part of the ViewModel.

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Take a look at the following blog post. It can give you some tips:

Drop-down Lists and ASP.NET MVC