ASP.NET MVC, passing Model from View to Controller

asp.net-mvc, controller, html.beginform, ienumerable

Solution

Change your view to some thing like this to properly bind the list on form submission.

@using(Html.BeginForm()) {
  for(int i=0;i<Model.axProc.Count;i++){
   <span>
    @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.axProc[i].value)
</span>
  }
  <input type="submit" value="SEND" />
}

Problem

I'm having trouble with ASP.NET MVC and passing data from View to Controller. I have a model like this: ``` public class InputModel { public List<Process> axProc { get; set; } public string ToJson() { return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(this); } } public class Process { public string name { get; set; } public string value { get; set; } } ``` I create this InputModel in my Controller and pass it to the View: ``` public ActionResult Input() { if (Session["InputModel"] == null) Session["InputModel"] = loadInputModel(); return View(Session["InputModel"]); } ``` In my Input.cshtml file I then have some code to generate the input form: ``` @model PROJ.Models.InputModel @using(Html.BeginForm()) { foreach(PROJ.Models.Process p in Model.axProc){ <input type="text" /> @* @Html.TextBoxFor(?? => p.value) *@ } <input type="submit" value="SEND" /> } ``` Now when I click on the submit button, I want to work with the data that was put into the textfields. QUESTION 1: I have seen this @Html.TextBoxFor(), but I don't really get this "stuff => otherstuff". I concluded that the "otherstuff" should be the field where I want to have my data written to, in this case it would probably be "p.value". But what is the "stuff" thing in front of the arrow? Back in the Controller I then have a function for the POST with some debug: ``` [HttpPost] public ActionResult Input(InputModel m) { DEBUG(m.ToJson()); DEBUG("COUNT: " + m.axProc.Count); return View(m); } ``` Here the Debug only shows something like: ``` {"axProc":[]} COUNT: 0 ``` So the returned Model I get is empty. QUESTION 2: Am I doing something fundamentally wrong with this @using(Html.BeginForm())? Is this not the correct choice here? If so, how do I get my model filled with data back to the controller? (I cannot use "@model List< Process >" here (because the example above is abbreviated, in the actual code there would be more stuff).) I hope someone can fill me in with some of the details I'm overlooking.

Original source