ASP.NET MVC - Partially updating model from view

Question

I just wondered how people were approaching this situation. It\'s something that seems like a weak point in my usage of MVC with ORMs (NHibernate in this case)...

Say y

Answer 1

Why don't you use TryUpdateModel with the form collection.

If your view is editing a person

public class Person
{
    public string ID { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public string Address { get; set; }
}

And your view is only editing first name and last name, you can do this:

public ActionResult Action(FormCollection form)
{
    Person personToUpdate = Repository.GetPerson(form["ID"]);

    TryUpdateModel(personToUpdate, form);

    Repository.Update(personToUpdate)

    return View();
}

That will only update Person with the items that a part of the form collection. If you don't want a field updated, don't submit it with the form.