How can I reuse a DropDownList in several views with .NET MVC

Question

Several views from my project have the same dropdownlist...

So, in the ViewModel from that view I have :

public IEnumerable Fo         


        

Answer 1

Extension methods to the rescue

public interface ISelectFoo {    
    IEnumerable FooDdl { get; set; }
}

public class FooModel:ISelectFoo {  /* implementation */ }     

public static void PopulateFoo(this ISelectFoo data, FooRepository repo)
{
    data.FooDdl = repo.GetAll().ToSelectList(x => x.Id, x => x.Name);
}


//controller
var model=new ViewModel(); 
model.PopulateFoo(repo);


 //a wild idea
public static T CreateModel(this FooRepository repo) where T:ISelectFoo,new()
{
    var model=new T();
    model.FooDdl=repo.GetAll().ToSelectList(x => x.Id, x => x.Name);
    return model;
 }

//controller
 var model=fooRepository.Create();