Attachments in MVC

Question

I have to update my contact form, to allow attachments.

My reading indicates I need to add a new property to my model, of type HttpPostedFileBase

So, I did the following

@model Ui.Models.Email

    @using (Html.BeginForm())
    {
        @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

        @Html.TextBoxFor(a => a.Attachment, new { @type = "file" })
    }

And my model

public class Email
{
    [Display(Name = "Attach away my assuming chum")]
    public HttpPostedFileBase Attachment { get; set; }
 }

The problem I'm getting is the property is always null!

Usually, when it's a string, int or List, the binding works, but I have no idea how to get it to bind to my model.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

To allow your form to upload files, it should have the enctype="multipart/form-data" attribute.

You can do it like so:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Action", "Controller", FormMethod.Post, new{ enctype="multipart/form-data" }))
{
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    @Html.TextBoxFor(a => a.Attachment, new { @type = "file" })
}