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.NET Display different database variable but save as ID?

I don't know how to sum up what I'm trying to do in the title properly! Basically I have created a controller with EF6 and one foreign key of the Client table is MJTopicsID which links to the MJTopics table, a table of 26 topics. In the add and edit view I want the MJTopicsID to be a drop down menu displaying all the topics available however when you select it and click to add or edit an entry it adds it to the Client table as the MJTopicsID foreign key number? How do I go about this so I can apply it to all of my views.
This is the dropdown menu I created in the edit view however it just shows numbers 1-26 and if I change it to the topics variable it doesn't know it as obviously its not in the open model, thanks!
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.MJTopicsID, "MJTopicsID", htmlAttributes: new { #class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.DropDownList("MJTopicsID", null, htmlAttributes: new { #class = "form-control" })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.MJTopicsID, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
</div>
</div>

If I understood correctly then you want to display some readable value and save some db specific value like foreign key Id in this case.
In the view for helper method "DropDownList" you can give second parameter of type IEnumerable type as a list of your options like this:
View:
#Html.DropDownList("MJTopicsID",
(List<SelectListItem>)#ViewBag.MJTopics,
htmlAttributes: new { #class = "form-control" })
Action:
public ActionResult Index()
{
ViewBag.MJTopics = new List<SelectListItem>() {
new SelectListItem(){Text = "Topic1", Value ="1" },
new SelectListItem(){Text = "Topic2", Value ="2" }
};
return View();
}
SelectListItem has two properties which you can map with your models.
Also you can use your model with "Text" as value to display and "value" as value to use.
Let "topics" is your list model for topics
then you can write it as
topics.Select(
x=> new SelectListItem()
{
Text = x.Id,
value =x.Desc
})
This is the one way of doing it.
I hope it will solve your problem.

I wanted to add an answer if anyone is new to EF6 and is trying to do the same thing.
In the controller for the actionresult you are trying to do this for, so in my case create it will create a viewbag variable this was mine:
ViewBag.MJTopicsID = new SelectList(db.MJTopicss, "ID", "ID");
I changed it to:
ViewBag.MJTopicsID = new SelectList(db.MJTopicss, "ID", "topicalTF");
The topicalTF is the variable for the topics available and this showed all the topics but would save it as the ID, hope this helps!

DropDownListFor How to set a default value from a database

So, I got a DropdownListfor that looks like that in my view:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ProductCategory, new SelectList(Model.ProductCategories.OrderBy(m => m.PCNumber), "", "Name"), "")
That works like it should. In my next view the user should be able to edit his order. So what I want to do is, if he opens the form all of his data from before should be displayed, for textboxes I got it work with the following code:
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.NameOfProduct, new { #Value = #Model.NameofProduct })
So now my problem is how can I do the same thing that I did with my textboxes (giving them default values from my model) for a DropDownListFor when the value is stored in my model(database)? It should like that if he selected Category 3 before and now wants to edit his order from before, the dropdownlist should show category 3 right away.
Thank you for any help!

Try this code may be it work in your situation.
#Html.DropDownListFor(m=> m.PCNumber, new SelectList(m.ProductCategories, "PCNumber", "ProductCategory"), "-- Select Category --", new { #class = "form-control" })
here you will get default edit order in your dropdown
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult EditOrder(int? id)
{
_obj_order_detail = db.order_detail.Find(id);
if (_obj_order_detail != null)
{
_obj_order_detail.ProductCategories = db.category_detail.ToList(); //get category List
return View(_obj_order_detail);
}
else
{
return view();
}
}
this will return view with order which you want to edit and ProductCategories and dropdown bu default contain ProductCategory which you want to edit

Getting the chosen item from DropDownList

I use JavaScript for populating a list called "groups".
Then I create a DropDownList:
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.DropDownList("groups", new SelectList(string.Empty, "Value", "Text"), "Choose...")
</div>
</div>
The DropDownList displays fine.
What I need to do is assign the chosen value from "groups" to the model.group_id.
I don't know how to get the item chosen in DropDownList in the controller method. Thank you for any advice.

If you need it to bind to group_id then use that as the name:
#Html.DropDownList("group_id", ...)
Or, even better, use the strongly-typed helper:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.group_id, ...)

Assuming you have a form field in your form with the name group_id like this and you want to set the selected value from your dropdown to that field for some reason,
#Html.HiddenFor(s=>s.group_id)
<div class="form-group">
#Html.DropDownList("groups",new SelectList(string.Empty, "Value", "Text"), "Choose...")
</div>
You can listen to the change event of the dropdown and get the selected option value and set to the group_id
$(function(){
$("#groups").change(function(e){
var v=$(this).val();
$("#group_id").val(v);
});
});
I am not sure why you are loading the dropdown content via javascript, but there are other better ways to render a dropdown and pass the selected value back to your controller as explained in this post.
Add a SelectedGroup property to your view model
public class CreateSomethingViewModel
{
public int SelectedGroup {set;get;}
public List<SelectListItem> Groups {set;get;}
}
and in your GET action, If you want to load the Groups, you can do it
public ActionResult Create()
{
var vm = new CreateSomethingViewModel();
//Hard coded for demo. You may replace with your db entries (see below)
vm.Groups = new List<SelectListItem> {
new SelectListItem { Value="1","Chase bank" },
new SelectListItem { Value="2","PNCbank" },
new SelectListItem { Value="3","BOA" }
};
return View(vm);
}
And in your view
#model CreateSomethingViewModel
#using(Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.DropDownListFor(s=>s.SelectedGroup,Model.Groups)
<input type="submi" />
}
With this you do not need to use any js code ( Even if you load the dropdown content via javascript), when user changes the dropdown option value, It will be set as the value of the SelectedGroup property.
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(CreateSomethingViewModel model)
{
// check model.SelectedGroup
// to do : Save and return/redirect
}

C# MVC ASP.NET DropDownListFor

I would like to send the selected dropdown option into model.Feit
Assuming, i need DropDownListFor, then select table, then the dropdown..?
//here's my drop down menu in my controller
List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem>();
items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Owner", Value = "0", Selected = true });
items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Leader", Value = "1" });
ViewBag.items = items;
//this works fine, but the selected option has to be inserted into my database when submitted
//the first line shows the label
<div class="editor-label">#Html.LabelFor(model => model.Feit)</div>
//the second line needs to show as a dropdownlist with the 2 options above here
<div class="editor-field">#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Feit, "items")</div>
//when the option is selected, and submit is pressed this has to be sent to the db
// this works for all other fields, but my syntax is wrong at , "items"

Since you've already populated an IEnumerable<SelectListItem> in your viewbag, you just need to access it and cast it to ensure the correct DropDownListFor overload is used:
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Feit, (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.items)
model.Feit should be of type int or something that can hold the value of the selected item.

Use this
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Feit, new SelectList(ViewBag.items, "Id","Name"),"Select")

populate dropdown list from html

I found posts for populating from database, classes, xml, etc but I cannot seem to find one for populating a dropdownlist straight from the web page.
<div class="editor-field">
#Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.Subject, Model.SubjectList)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Subject)
</div>
I just want to add several items to my dropdownlist without using Model.
Is that possible?

I think I understand what you are asking here. If you just want to hardcode values in the view you can do something like this:
#Html.DropDownList("", new List<SelectListItem> {
new SelectListItem { Text = "Option 1", Value="1"},
new SelectListItem{Text="Option 2", Value="1"}})
You could also create the select list in the controller and store it in the ViewBag.