This is now fixed. A combination of Ish's suggestion below plus adding calls to @HiddenFor in the view resolved the problem.
I have an ASP.NET MVC 5 web application where users can mark a defect as resolved. I want to display a list of potentially related defects, with check-boxes that users can tick to indicate that yes, this is the same defect, and should also be marked as resolved.
So I have a View Model with a property that is a collection, each member of which contains a defect object property and Boolean IsSameDefect
property. This all works fine in the GET action method and in the view. I can display the related defects and tick the boxes.
The problem arises in the POST action when I want to update the data. At this point the property (the collection of potentially related defects) is null. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to pass this data back to the controller?
Code as requested ...
// GET: /DefectResolution/Create
public ActionResult Create(int ciid)
{
int companyId = User.CompanyID();
DefectResolutionCreateViewModel drcvm = new DefectResolutionCreateViewModel(ciid, companyId);
return View(drcvm);
}
// POST: /DefectResolution/Create
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create(DefectResolutionCreateViewModel drcvm)
{
DefectResolutions currentResolution = drcvm.DefectResolution;
currentResolution.CreatedOn = System.DateTime.Now;
currentResolution.UserID = User.UserID();
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
unitOfWork.DefectResolutionRepository.Insert(currentResolution);
if (currentResolution.ResolutionStatusID == 2)
{
//code breaks here as drcvm.RelatedUnresolvedDefects is null
foreach (var relatedDefect in drcvm.RelatedUnresolvedDefects)
{
if (relatedDefect.IsSameDefect)
{
DefectResolutions relatedResolution = new DefectResolutions();
relatedResolution.ChecklistID = relatedDefect.RelatedChecklist.ChecklistID;
relatedResolution.CreatedOn = System.DateTime.Now;
relatedResolution.ResolutionNote = currentResolution.ResolutionNote;
relatedResolution.ResolutionStatusID = currentResolution.ResolutionStatusID;
relatedResolution.UserID = User.UserID();
}
}
}
unitOfWork.Save();
return RedirectToAction("Index", new { ciid = currentResolution.ChecklistID });
}
return View(drcvm);
}
In the view ...
@model Blah.ViewModels.DefectResolution.DefectResolutionCreateViewModel
@{
ViewBag.Title = "Create Defect Resolution";
var relatedDefects = Model.RelatedUnresolvedDefects;
}
... and later in the view ...
@for (int i = 0; i < relatedDefects.Count(); i++ )
{
<tr>
<td>
@Html.EditorFor(x => relatedDefects[i].IsSameDefect)
</td>
</tr>
}
I followed Ish's suggestion below, and modified the code to refer to Model.RelatedUnresolvedDefects directly instead of using a variable as I had been doing. This does get me a bit further. The view model's RelatedUnresolvedDefects property is no longer null. But only RelatedUnresolvedDefects.IsSameDefect has a value. RelatedUnresolvedDefects.RelatedChecklist is null. Here's the controller code again showing where it now breaks ...
// POST: /DefectResolution/Create
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create(DefectResolutionCreateViewModel drcvm)
{
DefectResolutions currentResolution = drcvm.DefectResolution;
currentResolution.CreatedOn = System.DateTime.Now;
currentResolution.UserID = User.UserID();
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
unitOfWork.DefectResolutionRepository.Insert(currentResolution);
if (currentResolution.ResolutionStatusID == 2)
{
//prior to change, code used to break here
foreach (var relatedDefect in drcvm.RelatedUnresolvedDefects)
{
if (relatedDefect.IsSameDefect)
{
DefectResolutions relatedResolution = new DefectResolutions();
//code now breaks here because relatedDefect.RelatedChecklist is null
relatedResolution.ChecklistID = relatedDefect.RelatedChecklist.ChecklistID;
relatedResolution.CreatedOn = System.DateTime.Now;
relatedResolution.ResolutionNote = currentResolution.ResolutionNote;
relatedResolution.ResolutionStatusID = currentResolution.ResolutionStatusID;
relatedResolution.UserID = User.UserID();
}
}
}
unitOfWork.Save();
return RedirectToAction("Index", new { ciid = currentResolution.ChecklistID });
}
return View(drcvm);
}