EditorFor not generating proper html

Question

I have a mvc web project where I try to render a list of checkbox with the EditorFor extension method but the result just display the ids as text instead of of a list of checkbox.

Here is the code in the view:

  <div id="permissions" class="tab-body">
     @Html.Label("Permissions :")
     @Html.EditorFor(x => Model.Permissions)
     <br />
     <br />
  </div>

This is the property 'Permissions' of the object 'Model':

  [DisplayName("Permissions")]
  public List<PermissionViewModel> Permissions { get; set; }

And this is the PermissionViewModel:

public class PermissionViewModel { public int Id { get; set; }

  public UserGroupPermissionType Name { get; set; }

  public string Description { get; set; }

  public bool IsDistributable { get; set; }

  public bool IsGranted { get; set; }

}

And finally, this is the result in the browser:

<div id="permissions" class="tab-body" style="display: block;">
<label for="Permissions_:">Permissions :</label>
192023242526272829
<br>
<br>
</div>

Have you any idea why the html is not generated correctly? Missing dependencies? Conflict in dependencies? Web.Config configured not correctly?

Thank you very much for you help.

Answer 1

It looks as if you need to create an editor template for the "PermissionViewModel" class, as right now, MVC seems to be confused with how to make an editor for such a complex object.

In the folder where the view is being served from, add a folder called "EditorTemplates"

Then add a new partial view in that folder. The code should be:

@model IEnumberable<PermissionViewModel>
@foreach(var permission in Model)
@Html.EditorFor(x => x.Name)
@Html.EditorFor(x => x.Description)
@Html.EditorFor(x => x.IsDistributable)
@Html.EditorFor(x => x.IsGranted)

You will need to create an Editor Template for the Name class as well.

So now in your view you can call

<div id="permissions" class="tab-body">
 @Html.Label("Permissions :")
 @Html.EditorFor(x => Model.Permissions)
 <br />
 <br />
</div>

And MVC will know to use the editor template you just made for your permission.

A good resource for learning about editor templates is here: http://bradwilson.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/aspnet-mvc-2-templates-part-1-introduction.html

Answer 2

Maybe you want to make something yourself?

    public delegate object Property<T>(T property);

    public static HtmlString MultiSelectListFor<TModel, TKey, TProperty>(
        this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
        Expression<Func<TModel, IEnumerable<TKey>>> forExpression,
        IEnumerable<TProperty> enumeratedItems,
        Func<TProperty, TKey> idExpression,
        Property<TProperty> displayExpression,
        Property<TProperty> titleExpression,
        object htmlAttributes) where TModel : class
    {
        //initialize values
        var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(forExpression, htmlHelper.ViewData);
        var propertyName = metaData.PropertyName;
        var propertyValue = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(propertyName).ToStringOrEmpty();
        var enumeratedType = typeof(TProperty);

        //check for problems
        if (enumeratedItems == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("The list of items cannot be null");

        //build the select tag
        var returnText = string.Format("<select multiple=\"multiple\" id=\"{0}\" name=\"{0}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(propertyName));
        if (htmlAttributes != null)
        {
            foreach (var kvp in htmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperties()
             .ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.GetValue(htmlAttributes, null)))
            {
                returnText += string.Format(" {0}=\"{1}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Key),
                 HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Value.ToStringOrEmpty()));
            }
        }
        returnText += ">\n";

        //build the options tags
        foreach (TProperty listItem in enumeratedItems)
        {
            var idValue = idExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var displayValue = displayExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var titleValue = titleExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            returnText += string.Format("<option value=\"{0}\" title=\"{1}\"",
                HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(idValue), HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(titleValue));
            if (propertyValue.Contains(idValue))
            {
                returnText += " selected=\"selected\"";
            }
            returnText += string.Format(">{0}</option>\n", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(displayValue));
        }

        //close the select tag
        returnText += "</select>";
        return new HtmlString(returnText);
    }