Populate DropDownList using MVC 4 & Entity Framework

Question

I\'m developing MVC4 & Entity Framework Application.I wanted to populate DropDownList,I wanted to bind Category List to Dodropdown list

IRepository Code

Answer 1

Using the ViewBag (as some have suggested in other answers/comments) to get data from your controller to view is generally seen as a code smell.

Your ViewModel should ideally contain all of the data you need for your view. So use your controller to populate this data on a property of your ViewModel:

SelectList ProductTypes { get; set; }

Then bind your dropdown to this value

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ProductType, Model.ProductTypes)

You can find this same answer given on this post.

Answer 2

Very simple Code step by step 1) In Entity Framework Class

var productsList = (from product in dbContext.Products
                     select new ProductDTO
                     {
                       ProductId = product.ProductId,
                       ProductName = product.ProductName,
                       }).ToList();

2) In Controller

ViewBag.productsList = new EntityFrameWorkClass().GetBusinessSubCategoriesListForDD();

3) In View

@Html.DropDownList("Product_ProductId", new SelectList(ViewBag.productsList , "ProductId", "ProductName"), new { @class = "form-control" })

OR

@Html.DropDownListFor(m=>m.Product_ProductId, new SelectList(ViewBag.productsList , "ProductId", "ProductName"), new { @class = "form-control" })

Answer 3

You could do this:

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.IdCategory, ViewBag.Categories)

But I would recommend you to avoid ViewBag/ViewData and profit from your viewmodel:

public ActionResult AddProduct()
{
    var model = new TestModel();

//This is just a example, but I advise you to turn your IList in a SelectListItem, for view is more easy to work. Your List Categories will be like this hardcoded:

model.ListCategories= new SelectList(new[]
{
    new { Value = "1", Text = "Category 1" },
    new { Value = "2", Text = "Category 2" },
    new { Value = "3", Text = "Category 3" },
}, "Value", "Text");

return View(model);

}

and in the view:

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.IdCategory, Model.ListCategories)

I hope I have helped

Answer 4

How about using ViewBag?

View

<label for="ProductType">Product Type</label>
   @Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ProductType,ViewBag.ListOfCategories)

Controller

public ActionResult AddProduct()
{
    ViewBag.ListOfCategories = GetCategory();
    return View();
}