MVC Radiobutton binding complex object

Question

I have MVC3 web application where we need to populate radio button list with validation. My Model is something like this:

public class EmployeesViewModel
{
          


        

Answer 1

Here's what I would recommend you. Start with a clean view model, one that really expresses what the view contains as information:

public class EmployeesViewModel
{
    public List<EmployeeViewModel> ListEmployee { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public int? SelectedEmployeeId { get; set; }
}

public class EmployeeViewModel
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Label { get; set; }
}

then a controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var model = new EmployeesViewModel
        {
            ListEmployee = GetEmployees()
        };
        return View(model);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(EmployeesViewModel model)
    {
        if (!ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            // the model is invalid, the user didn't select an employee
            // => refetch the employee list from the repository and
            // redisplay the view so that he can fix the errors
            model.ListEmployee = GetEmployees();
            return View(model);
        }

        // validation passed at this stage
        // TODO: model.SelectedEmployeeId will contain the id
        // of the selected employee => use your repository to fetch the
        // actual employee object and do something with it 
        // (like grant him the employee of the month prize :-))

        return Content("thanks for submitting", "text/plain");
    }

    // TODO: This doesn't belong here obviously
    // it's only for demonstration purposes. In the real 
    // application you have a repository, use DI, ...
    private List<EmployeeViewModel> GetEmployees()
    {
        return new[]
        {
            new EmployeeViewModel { ID = 1, Label = "John (HR)" },
            new EmployeeViewModel { ID = 2, Label = "Peter (IT)" },
            new EmployeeViewModel { ID = 3, Label = "Nathalie (Sales)" },
        }.ToList();
    }
}

and finally a view:

@model EmployeesViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.SelectedEmployeeId)
    @foreach (var employee in Model.ListEmployee)
    {
        <div>
            @Html.RadioButtonFor(x => x.SelectedEmployeeId, employee.ID, new { id = "emp" + employee.ID })
            @Html.Label("emp" + employee.ID, employee.Label)
        </div>
    }
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}