Try to access a property of parent viewmodel in displaytemplate

Question

I'm trying to build an asp.net mvc 4 application that makes use of partial views and display/editortemplates and Kendo ui. I have a viewmodel for a specific page:

public class Plant {
    public Guid PlantId{ get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Leaf> Leafs{ get; set; }
    public ICollection<Flower> Flowers{ get; set; }
    public ICollection<Bug> Bugs{ get; set; }
}

And as well Leaf, Flower as Bug have their own properties. By example:

public class Leaf {
    public Guid LeafId{ get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Documentation { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

I'm making use of partialviews in my view so it makes it more easy to update them with ajax. My normal view : PlantDetail.cshtml

@model Plant

<table>
<tr>
    <td>
        <h2>@Html.Label(Resources.PlantDetailTitle)</h2>
    </td>
    <td>
        @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.PlantId)
        @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name)
    </td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Description)
    </td>
    <td>
        @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Description)
    </td>
</tr>
</table>

 @{Html.RenderPartial("_flowers", Model);}

 @{Html.RenderPartial("_leafs", Model);}

In my partial view "_leafs" (as well as in "_flowers" I have a serie of buttons that invoke an action that needs the LeafId and the PlantId:

The partial view "_leafs":

 @model List<Leaf>

 @for (int i = 0; i < Model.Count(); i++ )
  {
  @(Html.DisplayFor(m => m[i]))
 }

My displayTemplate "Leaf.cshtml":

  @model Leaf
  @Html.HiddenFor(m =>m.LeafId)
   <a class='k-button k-button-icontext' href=@Url.Action("InitiateLeaf", "Plant") +"?    
  leafId=@Model.LeafId&plantId=#=PlantId#">@Model.Name</a>

Now my problem is that I can't seem to access the PlantId of my Parent Viewmodel in my displaytemplate. (And I have the same problem in each of my displaytemplates..) I've allready tried it with routevalues in my url.action and I know that I can eventually access the PlantId in javascript, but is there any (mvc) way to keep using displaytemplates and don't duplicate my plantId as a property of my child Leaf viewmodel?

I've allready tried to acces my parentviewcontext with something like "@HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString()" in my displaytemplate, but don't seem the find the value of my PlantId (if it is even stored there..).

Anyone else still has some suggestions?

Answer 1

One option as you mentioned, is to use jquery to access the parent PlantId. If you have a requirement to access your parent's properties, its better to design your view models similar to how Entity framework recommends us to create model classes.

public class Plant {
    public Guid PlantId{ get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Leaf> Leafs{ get; set; }
    public ICollection<Flower> Flowers{ get; set; }
    public ICollection<Bug> Bugs{ get; set; }
}

So your Leaf class should also have a navigational property to go back to Plant.

public class Leaf {
    public Guid LeafId{ get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Documentation { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public virtual Plant Plant { get; set; }
    public Guid PlantId { get; set; }
}

Make sure you populate the Plant property and PlantId when you create the ViewModel. Hope this helps