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How can I post changes to a list of players to database?

I want to post data to database but my viewmodel is empty when posting it to the controller, i tried different approaches, but everytime my viewmodel is null.
These are my classes :
public class Player
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name{ get; set; }
public string PreName{ get; set; }
}
public class Activitity
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public string WhichActivity { get; set; }
public List<Player> Players { get; set; }
}
public class Aanwezigheid
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public ReasonEnum Reason{ get; set; }
public int PlayerId{ get; set; }
public Player Player{ get; set; }
public List<Player> Players{ get; set; }
public int ActivityId { get; set; }
}
My View Model :
public class PresenceVM
{
public int PlayerId{ get; set; }
public int ActivityId { get; set; }
public string Name{ get; set; }
public string PreName { get; set; }
public ReasonEnum Reason { get; set; }
}
My HTTPGET for a list of players and I want to put the absence reason with the player in the database.
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Presence(int id)
{
var sp = _context.Players.ToList();
foreach(Players s in sp)
{
var van = new PresenceVM
{
PlayerId = s.Id,
Name = s.Name,
PreName = s.PreName,
ActivityId = id
};
list.Add(van);
}
return View(list);
}
My HttpPost
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Presence(List<PresenceVM> list)
{
var sp = _context.Players.ToList();
var list = new List<Presence>();
foreach (Players s in sp)
{
var van = new Aanwezigheid
{
PlayerId = s.Id,
ActivityId = vm.ActivityId,
Reason = vm.Reason
};
list.Add(van);
_context.Presence.Add(van);
//_context.SaveChanges();
}
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Presence");
}
The problem is that my PresenceVm (viewmodel) does not get any data in true my controller. I don't understand why? Is it because of a list? With one item it's easy to post it to database. Maybe multiple items?
Edit 1:
The viewmodel for the Get & Post
#model IEnumerable<....ViewModels.PresenceVM>
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Presence";
}
<table class="table">
<tr>
<th>
#Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Name)
</th>
<th>
#Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.PreName)
</th>
<th>
#Html.DisplayName("Reason")
</th>
</tr>
#foreach (var item in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Name)
</td>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.PreName)
</td>
<td>
#Html.EnumDropDownListFor(modelItem => item.Reason, "Present", new { #class = "form-control" })
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<form action="/Presences/Presence" method="post">
<div class="form-horizontal form-details">
<input type="submit" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
</form>

You're putting the form scope in wrong place (only include submit button). The correct way should include all properties you want to submit with indexes (since you're using IEnumerable<PresenceVM>, like this example:
<form action="/Presences/Presence" method="post">
<table class="table">
<tr>
<th>
#Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Name)
</th>
<th>
#Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.PreName)
</th>
<th>
#Html.DisplayName("Reason")
</th>
</tr>
#for (var i = 0; i < Model.Count; i++)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(modelItem => item[i].Name)
</td>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(modelItem => item[i].PreName)
</td>
<td>
#Html.EnumDropDownListFor(modelItem => item[i].Reason, "Present", new { #class = "form-control" })
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<div class="form-horizontal form-details">
<input type="submit" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
</form>
Note that if you want to allow user input, you need to change all DisplayFor into EditorFor.

Your Presence method is returning an object that does not exist (list).
It must return the view model if you want to use it in the post method.
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Presence(int id)
{
List<PresenceVM> model = context.Players.Select(u => new PresenceVM
{
PlayerId = s.Id,
Name = s.Name,
PreName = s.PreName,
ActivityId = id
}).ToList();
return View(model);
}

Seems that you don't use the Form tag
VIEW
#model MyViewModel
#using (Html.BeginForm(("Presence"))
{
#Html.AntiForgeryToken()
//divs
<div class="form-horizontal form-details">
<input type="submit" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
}
And it's better to pass a Model than a list of Model
VIEWMODEL
public class MyViewModel{
public IList<PresenceVM> MyList {get;set;}
}
CONTROLLER
public ActionResult Presence(MyViewModel xxx)
{
//whatever
}

ASP.NET MVC 5 model binding list is empty

I stuck on this issue for a while..
I've created a simple view model:
public class AddTranslationViewModel
{
public List<ProjectTranslation> ProjectTranslations { get; set; }
public AddTranslationViewModel()
{
ProjectTranslations = new List<ProjectTranslation>();
}
}
ProjectTranslation class:
public class ProjectTranslation
{
public int ProjectTranslationId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public int LanguageId { get; set; }
public Language Language { get; set; }
public int ProjectId { get; set; }
public Project Project { get; set; }
}
A simple view which uses the AddTranslationViewModel
<table class="table">
#foreach (var item in Model.ProjectTranslations)
{
#Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.ProjectTranslationId)
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Language.LanguageCode)
</td>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(modelItem => item.Title)
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<input type="submit" value="Send" />
and finally my POST Method:
public ViewResult AddTranslation(AddTranslationViewModel projectTranslations)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
//...
}
return View(projectTranslations);
}
The idea is very basic, I want to show a list of items where it should be possible to change/edit the values.
However, the model binding is not working, the projectsTranslations param in the HTTPPost-Method AddTranslation is always empty.
What's the mistake here?

Binding to a list of object requires creating input field structure with names containing indexes, i.e:
<input type="text" name="YourArrayOrList[0].SomeProperty" value="123" />
<input type="text" name="YourArrayOrList[0].SomeOtherProperty" value="321" />
<input type="text" name="YourArrayOrList[1].SomeProperty" value="123" />
<input type="text" name="YourArrayOrList[1].SomeOtherProperty" value="321" />
Moreover, you need to point the form to the proper Action Method in your Controller using Razor's Html.BeginFrom method (see documentation).
In you case it should look like this:
#using(Html.BeginForm("AddTranslation","YourControllerName"))
{
for (int i=0;i<Model.ProjectTranslations.Count; i++)
{
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.ProjectTranslations[i].ProjectTranslationId)
<tr>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(model => model.ProjectTranslations[i].Language.LanguageCode)
</td>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.ProjectTranslations[i].Title)
</td>
</tr>
}
}
If your method is not edit, but CREATE method, then obviously your List in model will have 0 elements. In this case, change the stop condition in for loop to desired count.
Keep in mind that this topic was discussed many times before:
ASP.NET MVC bind array in model
ASP.NET MVC - Can't bind array to view model

.net mvc view not return model on post

Before i started i would like to say i searched and found nothing similar
in my solution i have a model that contains a list of some of my objects
public class ModelView
{
public Owner owner = new Owner();
public Tenant tnt = new Tenant();
}
In my view i call that class as a model which is this way
#model WebApp.Models.ModelView
<form name="export_form" action="Export" method="post">
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0">
#if (Condition_1)
{
<tr>
<td>
<!-- ID -->
</td>
<td>
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.owner.ID)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Name
</td>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.owner.name)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Phone
</td>
<td>
#Html.CheckBoxFor(model => model.owner.is_Checked_Phone)
</td>
</tr>
}
else
{
<tr>
<td>
<!-- ID -->
</td>
<td>
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.tnt.ID)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Name
</td>
<td>
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.tnt.name)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Adress
</td>
<td>
#Html.CheckBoxFor(model => model.tnt.is_Checked_Adress)
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<input type="submit" name="SaveStuff" value="Save" />
<input type="submit" name="ExportStuff" value="Export" />
</form>
In my controller i have a class that handles multiple submit buttons and depending on the button name it would redirect to a method. below is the SaveStuff method
[HttpPost]
[SubmitButtonClass(Name = "SaveStuff")]
public ActionResult Save_Definition(Owner owner, Tenant tnt)
{
/*
Stuff Here
*/
}
the problem here is i keep getting null values even thought the entities are not null. is there a reason why? no values are returned.
Update
Model A
public partial class Owner
{
public long ID { get; set; }
public bool is_Checked_Name { get; set; }
public bool is_Checked_Phone { get; set; }
}
Model B
public partial class Tenant
{
public long ID{ get; set; }
public bool is_Checked_Name { get; set; }
public bool is_Checked_Adress { get; set; }
}
these are auto generated using EF

You have multiple issues with your code. Firstly the model in your view is ModelView and you generating form controls prefixed with that models property names, for example
<input type="checkbox" name="owner.is_Checked_Phone" ... />
which means your POST method needs to match the model in the view
public ActionResult Save_Definition(ModelView model)
The next issue is that you model only has fields, not properties with { get; set; }, so the DefaultModelBinder cannot set any values. Your view model would need properties such as public Owner owner { get; set; } and you set the value in either the controller before you pass the model to the view, or in a parameterless constructor for ModelView.
However a view model should not contain properties which are data models, but rather be a flat structure containing only the properties you need. In your case, it would be
public class ModelView
{
public long ID { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Name")]
public bool IsNameSelected { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Phone")]
public bool IsPhoneSelected { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Address")]
public bool IsAddressSelected { get; set; }
// additional property to define if the form is for an Owner or Tenant
public bool IsOwner { get; set; }
}
and in the GET method
var model = new ModelView()
{
IsOwner = true // or false
};
return View(model);
and in the view
#model ModelView
....
#using (Html.BeginForm("Save_Definition"))
{
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ID)
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.IsOwner)
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.IsNameSelected )
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.IsNameSelected )
if (Model.IsOwner)
{
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.IsPhoneSelected)
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.IsPhoneSelected)
}
else
{
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.IsAddressSelected)
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.IsAddressSelected)
}
.... // submit buttons
}
and the POST method, you can check the value of model.IsOwner to know if you have submitted an Owner or Tenant and take the appropriate action.
Side notes:
Recommend you read What is ViewModel in
MVC?
The <table> element is for tabular data. Do not use it for layout.
Your view has <form action="Export" .. > yet your POST method is
named Save_Definition so unsure which method you intending to
submit the form to.

If your post controller is changing original model data, you will need to issue a ModelState.Remove("propertyname") followed by model.propertyname = "new value" and then a simple return View(model) will update the changed value on your already posted view.

Should I use ViewBag to pass a list to a View?

Not sure why I got down voted but I'm going to re-write my question after doing some research and testing. This is a side project that I'm using to learn MVC/EF/Repository/Bootstrap etc. I only get a couple hours here a few nights a week to work on it.
Basic original question:
I know I should really be using a List<> in a ViewModel to pass the data to the View but I'm not sure how or if it will meet my requirement.
What I am trying to do is get a list of users to display in a table which would have a checkbox in each row. Above that table I want to have a list of Groups to that they could be assigned to. You select the section from the DropDownList (DDL) and then check who you want to assign it to. It's the groups/sections that I want want to assign as a list and pass to the View.
So, I've got a ViewModel with a list and I'm using a repository to populate the VM. What I don't know how to do exactly is where/when to populate that list with each VM object and even if I do and there are say 50 users I wouldn't want to make 50 trips to the DB to pull the same information.That is why I'm thinking that for this scenario using the ViewBag to pass that Group list to the View might be justifiable. On the flip side I would like to learn how to populate that list properly in the VM for future coding.
Updated question/code:
So, after more research and following some suggestions I've now got the following code. I'm still not sure how I will properly populate my Patrols in my ViewModel in order to populate the DDL in my View.
At the moment I've got the View displaying the table with the checkboxes. Now I'm back to working on getting the values to populate the DDL and then I'll have to work on posting to the controller, looping to find the check rows, and updating the database. In my case each member record is defaulted to a PatrolId=0 and this page should allow me to update the PatrolId to a value from the DDL.
The Patrols property in the PatrolMemberViewModel should be a list of about 5 records that I would pull from a DB table instead of hard coding in the DDL.
ViewModel:
public class PatrolViewModel
{
public int PatrolId { get; set; }
public string PatrolName { get; set; }
}
public class PatrolMemberViewModel
{
[Key]
public int MemberId { get; set; }
public int PatrolId { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "First Name")]
public string FirstName { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Last Name")]
public string LastName { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Phone")]
public string PhonePrimary { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Email")]
public string EmailPrimary { get; set; }
public bool IsSelected { get; set; }
public PatrolViewModel Patrols { get; set; }
}
Controller:
public ViewResult Unassigned()
{
try
{
IEnumerable<PatrolMemberViewModel> model = repository.SelectAllUnassigned();
return View(model);
}
catch (Exception)
{
ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, "Error retrieving the record.");
return View();
}
}
Repository:
public IEnumerable<PatrolMemberViewModel> SelectAllUnassigned()
{
using (DataContext db = new DataContext())
{
var results = (from p in db.Person
where p.IsActive == true
&& p.IsScout == true
&& p.PatrolId == 0
select new PatrolMemberViewModel
{
MemberId = p.PID,
FirstName = p.FirstName ?? string.Empty,
LastName = p.LastName ?? string.Empty,
EmailPrimary = p.EmailPrimary ?? string.Empty,
PhonePrimary = p.PhonePrimary ?? string.Empty,
PatrolId = p.PatrolId,
IsSelected = false
}
).OrderBy(o => o.LastName).ThenBy(o => o.FirstName).ToList();
return results;
}
}
View:
#model IList<ProjectName.ViewModels.PatrolMemberViewModel>
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Unassigned";
Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
<h2>Patrols</h2>
#using (Html.BeginForm("Update", "Patrol", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
#Html.AntiForgeryToken()
#Html.ValidationSummary(false, "", new { #class = "alert alert-danger" })
<table class="table table-bordered table-striped table-hover table-condensed tbackground">
<tr>
<th class="text-center">
</th>
<th class="text-center">
First Name
</th>
<th class="text-center">
Last Name
</th>
<th class="text-center">
Email
</th>
<th class="text-center">
Phone
</th>
</tr>
#for (var i = 0; i < Model.Count(); i++)
{
<tr>
<td class="text-center">
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m[i].IsSelected)
</td>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m[i].FirstName)
</td>
<td>
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m[i].LastName)
</td>
<td>
#Model[i].EmailPrimary
</td>
<td class="text-center">
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m[i].PhonePrimary)
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<div class="control-wrapper">
<input type="submit" id="btnSubmit" value="Assign" class="btn btn-success" />
</div>
}
<p> </p>

Start by creating the view models to represent what you want to display/edit in the view. Your PatrolMemberViewModel can be used but remove the [Key] attribute and the int PatrolId and PatrolViewModel Patrols properties.
Then create the parent view model
public class AssignPatrolViewModel
{
[Display(Name = "Patrol")]
[Required(ErrorMessage = "Please select a patrol")]
public int? SelectedPatrol { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> PatrolList { get; set; }
public List<PatrolMemberViewModel> Members { get; set; }
}
and you GET method would be
public ViewResult Unassigned()
{
var model = new AssignPatrolViewModel
{
PatrolList = new SelectList(db.Patrols, "PatrolId", "PatrolName"), // modify to suit
Members = repository.SelectAllUnassigned().ToList()
};
return View(model);
}
and in the view
#model AssignPatrolViewModel
....
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.SelectedPatrol)
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.SelectedPatrol, Model.PatrolList, "Please select")
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.SelectedPatrol)
<table>
.... // thead elements
<tbody>
#for(int i = 0; i < Model.Members.Count; i++)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.Members[i].IsSelected)
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.Members[i].MemberId)
// add other hidden inputs for properties you want to post
</td>
<td>#Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Members[i].FirstName)</td>
....
</tr>
}
</tbody>
</table>
<input type="submit" value="Assign" class="btn btn-success" />
}
Then in the POST method
[HttpPost]
public ViewResult Unassigned(AssignPatrolViewModel model)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
model.PatrolList = new SelectList(db.Patrols, "PatrolId", "PatrolName");
return View(model);
}
// Get selected ID's
IEnumerable<int> selected = model.Members.Where(m => m.IsSelected).Select(m => m.MemberId);
// Get matching data models
var members = db.Person.Where(p => selected.Contains(p.PID)); // modify to suit
// loop each each member, update its PatrolId to the value of model.SelectedPatrol
// save and redirect
}

You could create a new class for your view model, with the list of users and the list of sections as properties within it. Some people seem to like that approach.
But I think your use of ViewBag for passing the list of sections is perfectly valid. I do that all the time for DDLs like this.

Submit a form with a collection of a Model

I have a ViewModel which contains a collection of type of my Model, like so:
public class OrderConfirm
{
public ICollection<QuoteLine> SalesLines { get; set; }
public string Currency { get; set; }
public int EnquiryID { get; set; }
}
My QuoteLine Model looks like so:
public class QuoteLine
{
public int QuoteLineId { get; set; }
public int LostReasonId { get; set; }
public virtual LostReason LostReason { get; set; }
public string ItemName { get; set; }
}
In my View, I then Iterate through each of these QuoteLines, within a form, like so:
#using (Ajax.BeginForm("ConfirmLostOrder", new AjaxOptions()
{
InsertionMode = InsertionMode.Replace,
UpdateTargetId = "LostOrders",
OnBegin = "LostOrderConfirm"
}))
{
<table class="completed-enq-table">
<tr>
<th>
Item Number
</th>
<th>
Reason
</th>
</tr>
#foreach (var sales in Model.SalesLines)
{
<tr>
<td>#sales.ItemName
#Html.HiddenFor(model => sales.QuoteLineID)
</td>
<td>#Html.DropDownListFor(model => sales.LostReasonId, ((IEnumerable<myApp.Models.LostReason>)ViewBag.LostReasons).Select(option => new SelectListItem
{
Text = (option == null ? "None" : option.LostReason),
Value = option.LostReasonId.ToString(),
Selected = (Model != null) && (option.LostReasonId == sales.LostStatusId)
}))
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
<input type="submit" style="float: right;" value="Submit Lost Order" />
}
Then my HttpPost action looks like so:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ConfirmLostOrder(List<QuoteLine> models)
{
// process order
return PartialView("Sales/_ConfirmLostOrder");
}
The problem is, models is null. If I use a FormCollection I can see each of the values submitted but I'd like to use my model and not a FormCollection as I'd like to process and edit each of the line submitted individually as they may have different reason's

You can't use a foreach in this instance, it needs to be a for loop so that the name attributes of the fields contain the correct index so that default model binding knows it's binding to a list.
Firstly, I'm going to move your dropdown values out of the ViewBag (they should really be in there). That'll also take out some of that nasty logic in your view :)
So your model is now:
public class OrderConfirm
{
public List<QuoteLine> SalesLines { get; set; }
public string Currency { get; set; }
public int EnquiryID { get; set; }
public SelectList LostReasons { get; set; }
}
Try this instead of your foreach:
#for (var i = 0; i < Model.SalesLines.Count; i++)
{
<tr>
<td>
#Model.SalesLines[i].ItemName
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.SalesLines[i].QuoteLineId)
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.SalesLines[i].ItemName) //assuming you want this
</td>
<td>
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.SalesLines[i].LostReasonId, Model.LostReasons)
</td>
</tr>
}
Then change your post method to take your OrderConfirm model type:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ConfirmLostOrder(OrderConfirm model)