Using a Value Type as Model in Partial View in ASP.NET MVC
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10-07-2019 - |
Question
Is there a way to use something like this: System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<DateTime>
? I get an exception that the type is a value type, not a reference type. What is the proper way to resolve this? Thanks.
Edit
What I am trying to accomplish is having a control that takes a DateTime
to render a calendar. I want to pass in the DateTime
from my ViewData using "dot notation" for MVC.
Edit 2
I heard/seen that some MvcContrib projects might have this capability, but I can't seem to find it again.
Solution
There is no way to resolve this - only workarounds. You cannot include Value types as TModel in ViewUserControl as TModel has a constraint to be a reference type.
The easy workaround is to wrap your value type in a class as your model.
class MyModel {
public DateTime? DateTime {get;set;}
}
By defining your own class like MyModel above, you can now pass a DateTime to your views, like so
ActionResult MyActionMethod() {
var db = new MyDataContext();
var dbThing = db.Things.Where(t=> t.DateTimeProperty>=DateTime.Now).First();
return View("myView", new MyModel{DateTime = dbThing.DateTimeProperty});
}
Your view of course will need to define MyModel as it's model type, like so
public partial class MyView:ViewUserControl<MyModel> {
//snip
}
And inside your View, simply refer to the DateTime property to access the DateTime.
<%=Model.DateTime%>