Working with EF Generated Model and My Own Model

Question

I have 2 Models. First one is created by EF and looks like:

public partial class PrinterMapping
{
    public string MTPrinterID { get; set; }
    public string NTPrinterID { get; set; }
    public string Active { get; set; }
}

I created the second one (nothing to do with any database table) and looks like:

public class ExceptionModel
{
    public string ExceptionMessage { get; set; }

    public ExceptionModel(string exceptionMessage)
    {
        ExceptionMessage = exceptionMessage;
    }
}

In my Index and Create views, the model that is automatically being passed is PrinterMapping. I wish to output ExceptionMessage property of the ExceptionModel model after populating it in a relevant way after saving to the table accessed by PrinterMapping. So in my Create controller, I am doing:

ExceptionModel exModel = new ExceptionModel(message);

where message parameter is a relevant string like "Printer X already exists".

My thoughts were to have a partial view called ExceptionMessageView where my ExceptionModel would be passed on to it and I will display:

@Html.DisplayFor(model => model.ExceptionMessage)

And in my Index and Create views, I will have a line like:

@Html.Partial("~/Views/Home/ExceptionMessageView.cshtml")

Am I over complicating things? This isn't working anyway since I don't fully understand how to pass on the populated ExceptionModel from my Create Controller to the ExceptionMessageView partial view.

Will a kind soul please enlighten?

Answer 1

I would have a complex Viewmodel "PrinterViewModel" that has properties for ExceptionModel and PrinterMapping.

The controller then passes the complete PrinterViewModel to the view.

In the View you would render partials by passing part of the complex Viewmodel to them.

@Html.Partial("ExceptionMessageView",Model.Exception)