Html.BeginForm() not passing the model

Question

I have the following cshtml form:

model Scraper.Facade.PlayerRow

@using (Html.BeginForm("Calculate", "Home", FormMethod.Post))
{
<table class="table table-striped table-bordered table-condensed table-responsive table-hover">
    @foreach (var player in Model.AttribsPlayerLine)
    {
        <thead>
            <tr class="success">
                @foreach (var attrib in player.AttribsPlayerList)
                {
                    //@Html.DisplayNameFor(x => Model.tytul)
                    <th data-field="@attrib.attribName">@Html.DisplayFor(x => attrib.attribName) </th>
                }
            </tr>
            <tr class="active">
                @foreach (var attrib in player.AttribsPlayerList)
                {
                    <td data-field="@attrib.attribValue">@Html.TextBoxFor(x => attrib.attribValue)</td>
                }
            </tr>
        </thead>

    }
</table>

<input class="btn-danger"  type="submit" name="Next >>" value="Next >>" />
}

which is displaying correctly and then I am trying to get the model in the following controller ActionResult

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Calculate(PlayerRow model)
{
    GenericHelper _genericHelper = new GenericHelper();
    return View();
}

However the PlayerRow model is always null.

What am I doing wrong?

This is my model definition

public PlayerRow LoadHtmlDoc(string fileLocation)
{
        List<Attrib> attribsHeaderList = new List<Attrib>();
        var playerRow = new PlayerRow();
        playerRow.AttribsPlayerLine = new List<AttribLine>();

        var htmlDoc = new HtmlDocument { OptionFixNestedTags = true };

        // There are various options, set as needed

        // filePath is a path to a file containing the html
        htmlDoc.Load(fileLocation);
}

public class PlayerRow
{
    public List<AttribLine> AttribsPlayerLine; 

}

---

UPDATE

Hi All, I changed a bit the logic of my application, basically having 2 lists which has the Header Attributes, and the Attributes for all the players, so only 2 classes now, and I changed the cshtml like this, which is working now :-

@using (Html.BeginForm("Calculate", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype =        "multipart/form-data" }))
{
<table class="table table-striped table-bordered table-condensed table-responsive table-hover">
    <tr>
        @for (int k = 0; k < Model.HeaderAttributes.Count; k++)
        {
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.HeaderAttributes[k].AttributeName)
                @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.HeaderAttributes[k].AttributeName)
            </td>
        }
    </tr>


    @for (int i = 0; i < Model.PlayerList.Count; i++)
    {
        <tr>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.PlayerList[i].PlayerName)
                @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.PlayerList[i].PlayerName)
            </td>
            @for (int j = 0; j < Model.PlayerList[i].AttributesList.Count; j++)
            {
                <td>
                    @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.PlayerList[i].AttributesList[j].AttributeValue)
                    @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.PlayerList[i].AttributesList[j].AttributeValue)
                </td>
            }
        </tr>
    }

</table>


<input class="btn-danger" type="submit" name="Next >>" value="Next >>" />
}

Now my problem is, who to award the Answer, since I can say that most of the Answers were really helpful to arrive to my solution

Answer 1

Here is a working example of what you're trying to do. This is about as a close as I can get you.

Let's start with the simplified models:

public class PlayerRow
{
    public List<AttribLine> AttribsPlayerLine { get; set; }
}

public class AttribLine
{
    public string attribName { get; set; }
    public string attribValue { get; set; }
}

Note that it is IMPORTANT to include the { get; set; } on each model property so the model binder knows it's on the block for binding.

Next is a simplified view looking only at the form() section:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Calculate", "PlayerRow", FormMethod.Post))
{
    <table>
        @*/*Build out header*/*@
        <tr>
            @foreach (AttribLine a in Model.AttribsPlayerLine)
            {
                <th>@Html.Label("title", a.attribName)</th>
            }
        </tr>
        @*/* Add row of our player attributes */*@
        <tr>
            @foreach (AttribLine a in Model.AttribsPlayerLine)
            {
                using (Html.BeginCollectionItem("AttribsPlayerLine"))
                {
                    <td>
                        @Html.TextBox("attribValue", a.attribValue)
                        @Html.Hidden("attribName", a.attribName)
                        @*
                           /* Add any more [AttribLine] properties as hidden here */
                        *@
                    </td>
                }
            }
        </tr>
    </table>
    <input class="btn-danger" type="submit" name="Next >>" value="Next >>" />
}

Note that it is IMPORTANT here to make sure that even though a property is not editable by the user, it needs to be included as a hidden element inside our CollectionItem so the model binder can SET it on the [POST]

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You are correctly passing the model to the view, but once it gets to the view, the model data will essentially be 'cleared' unless you either edit it or pass it on the next controller, in this situation "Calculate".

I'm not sure exactly what parts of the viewmodel you want passed to the controller, but you can always use this:

  @Html.HiddenFor(model => model.DataYouWantPassedToController)

Now, you can always use these items also to pass data if you want to edit/change:

  @Html.EditorFor(model => model.DataYouWantToEditAndPass)... and so on.

If you simple loop through data without changing or passing it, like you do in the @foreach, the data will be lost during your 'Post' method.

Answer 3

Try use a @Html.EditorForModel() like this:

@model Scraper.Facade.PlayerRow

@using (Html.BeginForm("Calculate", "Home", FormMethod.Post))
{
    @Html.EditorForModel()

    <input class="btn-danger"  type="submit" name="Next >>" value="Next >>" />
}

Create a file named PlayerRow.cshtml as PartialView on the folder Views/Shared/EditorTemplates and add the following code:

    @model Scraper.Facade.PlayerRow
    <table class="table table-striped table-bordered table-condensed table-responsive table-hover">
        @foreach (var player in Model.AttribsPlayerLine)
        {
            <thead>
                <tr class="success">
                    @foreach (var attrib in player.AttribsPlayerList)
                    {
                        //@Html.DisplayNameFor(x => Model.tytul)
                        <th data-field="@attrib.attribName">@Html.DisplayFor(x => attrib.attribName) </th>
                    }
                </tr>
                <tr class="active">
                    @foreach (var attrib in player.AttribsPlayerList)
                    {
                        <td data-field="@attrib.attribValue">@Html.TextBoxFor(x => attrib.attribValue)</td>
                    }
                </tr>
            </thead>

        }
    </table>

I think that this will help you.