Learning MVC - Maintaining model state
- by GenericTypeTea
First of all, I'm very new to MVC. Bought the books, but not got the T-Shirt yet.
I've put together my first little application, but I'm looking at the way I'm maintaining my model and I don't think it looks right.
My form contains the following:
<% using (Html.BeginForm("Reconfigured", null, FormMethod.Post, new { id = "configurationForm" })) { %>
<%= Html.DropDownList("selectedCompany",
new SelectList(Model.Companies, Model.SelectedCompany),
new { onchange = "$('#configurationForm').submit()" })%>
<%= Html.DropDownList("selectedDepartment",
new SelectList(Model.Departments, Model.SelectedDepartment),
new { onchange = "$('#configurationForm').submit()" })%>
<%=Html.TextArea("comment", Model.Comment) %>
<%} %>
My controller has the following:
public ActionResult Index(string company, string department, string comment)
{
TestModel form = new TestModel();
form.Departments = _someRepository.GetList();
form.Companies = _someRepository.GetList();
form.Comment = comment;
form.SelectedCompany = company;
form.SelectedDepartment = department;
return View(form);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Reconfigured(string selectedCompany,
string selectedDepartment, string comment)
{
return RedirectToAction("Index", new { company = selectedCompany,
department = selectedDepartment, comment = comment});
}
And finally, this is my route:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{company}/{department}",
new { controller = "CompanyController", action = "Index", company="",
department="" }
);
Now, every time I change DropDownList value, all my values are maintained. I end up with a URL like the following after the Reconfigure action is called:
http://localhost/Main/Index/Company/Sales?comment=Foo%20Bar
Ideally I'd like the URL to remain as:
http://localhost/Main/Index
My routing object is probably wrong.
This can't be the right way? It seems totally wrong to me as for each extra field I add, I have to add the property into the Index() method?
I had a look at this answer where the form is passed through TempData. This is obviously an improvement, but it's not strongly typed? Is there a way to do something similar but have it strongly typed?
This may be a simple-enough question, but the curse of 10 years of WinForms/WebForms makes this MVC malarky hard to get your head 'round.
