formcollection only holds the selected html.listbox items values? MVC

Question

My scenario is this: I have two listbox\'s, one that contains all my database items, and an empty one. The user adds the items needed from the full listbox to the empty list

Answer 1

Why not have the list of items in checkboxes. Then you could iterate through the checkboxes in your action and grab all selected checkboxes.

<% foreach(var item in Model.Items) { %>

   <%= Html.CheckBox(String.Format("ItemID.{0}", item.ID)) %> // each item tagged by the items id

<% } %>

public ActionResult MyAction(FormCollection formCollection)
{

            foreach (var key in collection.AllKeys.Where(k => !k.Contains("SubmitButton")).ToArray())
            {
                 // iterates thru check boxes we got rid of the button 

            }
}