MVC 4 Simple Populate DropDown from database model

Question

I feel a bit stupid.

I\'m trying to get a hang of MVC 4, using boxing as a functional example.

I have WeightCategories in the database (H

Answer 1

You could design a view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public Boxer Boxer { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> WeightCategories { get; set; }
}

and then have your controller action populate and pass this view model to the view:

public ActionResult Edit(int id)
{
    var model = new MyViewModel();
    using (var db = new SomeDataContext())
    {
        // Get the boxer you would like to edit from the database
        model.Boxer = db.Boxers.Single(x => x.BoxerId == id);

        // Here you are selecting all the available weight categroies
        // from the database and projecting them to the IEnumerable<SelectListItem>
        model.WeightCategories = db.WeightCategories.ToList().Select(x => new SelectListItem
        {
            Value = x.WeightCategoryId.ToString(),
            Text = x.Name
        })
    }
    return View(model);
}

and now your view becomes strongly typed to the view model:

@model MyViewModel
@Html.DropDownListFor(
    x => model.Boxer.CurrentWeightCategory.WeightCategoryId,
    Model.WeightCategories
)