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Posting Table Data To Controller

Really need help;
I have a staging table which gets populated from a SQL stored procedure which allows the user to edit the fields and then when completed they press a button to send the data back to be saved into multiple tables,
but when I post back to the controller it doesn't have any data.
This is part of the table

<td style="width:100px;">

            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Agent_Name)

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Agent_Name, new { @class = "hiddenField" })

        </td>

        <td class="hide">

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Agent__)

        </td>

        <td style="width:30em;">

            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Agent_2_Name)

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Merchant_ID, new { @class = "hiddenField" })

        </td>

        <td class="hide">

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Agent_2__)

        </td>

        <td style="width:30em;">

            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Agent_3_Name)

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Agent_3_Name, new { @class = "hiddenField" })

        </td>

        <td class="hide">

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.Agent_3__)

        </td>

        <td>

            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.App_Fee)

            @Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.App_Fee, new { @class = "hiddenField" })

        </td>

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On top of my viewI have

@model My_Report.ViewModels.ConfirmationViewModel

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and in the controller I have

 [HttpPost]

        public ActionResult Confirmation(confirmationViewModel records)

        {

             CWACommissionRepository CWA = new CWACommissionRepository();

            foreach (STAGING_TABLE_Details record in records)

            {

                CWA.SaveNewDetails(record);

            }

            return View();

        }

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but every time it says records = null

I know I have probably left something very basic out but just can't see it

Carl Tawn

What is it that you are using to populate your view?

Niall Gallagher

ASKER

I am populating it from a linq to entity query then populating the view by a viewmodel. I hope that answers your question

Carl Tawn

How is your ViewModel defined? What you bind to will usually influence how you define the data to be passed back to the controller.

Niall Gallagher

ASKER

Carl, firstly let me thank you for helping to hopefully get this sorted out.

In my view model I have

public class ConfirmationViewModel
    {
       public List<STAGING_TABLE_Details> getConfirmationData { get; set; }   
    }

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It gets populated from

 public ActionResult Confirmation()
        {
            CommissionRepository CWA = new CommissionRepository();
            var vm = new ConfirmationViewModel
            {
                getConfirmationData = CWA.GetStagingTable()
            };               
            return View(vm);

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and the query populating it looks like

 public List<STAGING_TABLE_Details> GetStagingTable()
        {
            DateTime lastMonth = DateTime.Today.AddMonths(-1);
            List<STAGING_TABLE_Details> info = null;
            using (CWA_MerchantEntities context = getDataContext())
            {
                info = (from s in context.STAGING_TABLE
                        join a in context._AGENT 
                       on s.Agent_Name equals a.Agent_F_Name + " " + a.Agent_L_Name into ps
                        from a in ps.DefaultIfEmpty() 
                        where s.App_Submit___Date > lastMonth
                        select new STAGING_TABLE_Details
                        {                           
                            Agent_Name = s.Agent_Name,
                            Agent__ = a.Agent_ID.ToString(),
                            Agent_2_Name = s.Agent_2_Name,
                            Agent_2__ = a.Agent_ID.ToString(),
                            Agent_3_Name = s.Agent_3_Name,
                            Agent_3__ = a.Agent_ID.ToString(),                           
                            App_Submit___Date = s.App_Submit___Date
                              }).ToList();
       }
            return info;  
    }

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Again, Thank you for your help

Carl Tawn

Are you currently populating your view using a foreach loop by any chance?

Niall Gallagher

ASKER

Yes,
foreach (var item in Model.getConfirmationData)

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Carl Tawn

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Niall Gallagher

ASKER

Carl,
Thanks again your answer was correct. Can you help me understand why it made a difference.

Niall Gallagher

ASKER

This answer saved my hair, after 2 days of staring at the screen.
Thank you.

I am still not 100% sure why it made such a difference but it did.

Carl Tawn

The clue is in the output produced by the two versions. If you look at the output from the for loop, you will see something like:

<input class="text-box single-line" id="getConfirmationData_0__Agent__" name="getConfirmationData[0].Agent__" type="text" value="Agent1" />

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Whereas the version with a foreach loop will generate something like:

<input class="text-box single-line" id="item_Agent__" name="item.Agent__" type="text" value="Agent1" />

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Notice that there is no numeric indexing in the foreach version.

When the data is posted to the server it is sent in the Form object, the controller has no idea that it was in a HTML table. So, without the index numbers in the IDs the server has no way to figure out that it is being sent a collection of items rather than just a single item.

Niall Gallagher

ASKER

OH OK,

Thanks for the answer AND the explanation