Simplest Way To Do Dynamic View Models in ASP.NET MVC 3

Question

Caveat: This might be an inappropriate use of C#\'s dynamic keyword and I probably should be using a strongly-typed view model, but...

I\'m trying t

Answer 1

Like you said, it's not supported. (I'm not saying dynamic View Models aren't supported - I'm saying what you're trying to do is not)

You could probably neaten up the LINQ query, but in the end your best bet would be to simply create a custom View Model. Seriously, it will take you about 30 seconds to do that.

I know dynamic is new and cool and everything, but your code will be a lot neater and easier to maintain if you just stick with a custom View Model in this case.

I would only go with a dynamic View Model in the very simple scenarios - most of the time you probably want to stick with what we've been doing all along - custom View Models.

Answer 2

Ok, you could do the following, but I wouldn't recommend it. Create a static method similar to the following

public static IHtmlString DisplayProperty(object obj, string property) {
    return new HtmlString(TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(obj)[property].GetValue(obj).ToString());
}

Then in your cshtml file make the following call (make sure to using your proper namespace)

<tbody>
    @foreach (var item in Model) {
    <tr>
        <td>@DisplayProperty(x, "RateCodeName")</td>
        <td>@DisplayProperty(x, "Year")</td>                            
        <td>@DisplayProperty(x, "Rate")</td>
        <td>>@DisplayProperty(x, "Comment")</td>
    </tr>
    }
</tbody>

I wouldn't recommend this though but it is a solution to your problem that doesn't require a model.