How to read the data from a dropdown in ASP.Net MVC 3

Question

Step 1:

I\'m using a dropdown to display company locations. The list comes from the Location table.

Step 2:

While the user is registering, the drop

Answer 1

Create a ViewModel for your form

public class CompanyViewModel
{
  public int CompanyId { set;get;}
  // Other properties of Company
  public int SelectedLocationId { set;get;}
  public IEnumerable Locations { set;get;}
}

Assuming you have a Location class like this

public class Location
{
  public int Id { set;get;}
  public string Name { set;get;}
}

In the Register (HTTPGET) Action method, Return a CompanyViewModel object with Locations filled from database to the View

public ActionReuslt Register()
{
  CompanyViewModel model=new CompanyViewModel();
  model.Locations =myRepositary.GetAllLocations();
  return View(model);
} 

Assuming GetAllLocations returns a list of Location objects from your repositary.

And in the Register View which is strongly typed to CompanyViewModel

@model CompanyViewModel
@using(Html.BeginForm())
{

  @Html.DropDownListFor(x=>x.SelectedLocationId,
                     new SelectList(Model.Locations ,"Id",
                     "Name"),"Select Location")

  
}

Now write an HTTPPost actionmethod to handle the form post(when user submits the form)

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Register(CompanyViewModel model)
{
 if(ModelState.IsValid)
 {
  // You will have selected Location id available in model.SelectedLocationId property now
  //Save and redirect.
 }
 //Model Validation failed. so Let us reload the locations again
 //because HTTP is stateless and ASP.NET MVC is true to HTTP ! :)
 model.Locations =myRepositary.GetAllLocations();
 return View(model);
}