Ajax call breaks binding to object children

Question

Without the ajax call, My main view binds to my parent class and the partial view on main view, binds to a child member of the parent class

parent...

public class Client
{
    [ScaffoldColumn(false)]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Name")]
    [Required]
    [StringLength(120)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    // etc...

    public virtual Address Address { get; set; }
}

child of parent...

public class Address
{
    [ScaffoldColumn(false)]
    public int AddressId { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Address")]
    [Required]
    [StringLength(200)]
    public string Street { get; set; }

    // etc...

    [ForeignKey("Client")]
    public int? Id { get; set; }
    public virtual Client Client { get; set; }

}

the main view

@using (Html.BeginForm("Create", "Client", FormMethod.Post, new Dictionary<string, object> { { "data-htci-target", "addressData" } }))
{
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()


    <div class="row">
        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Name, new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })
        <div class="col-sm-4 col-md-4 col-lg-4">
            @Html.Kendo().AutoCompleteFor(model => model.Name).HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width:100%" })
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Name)
        </div>
    </div>

    @{ var vdd = new ViewDataDictionary(ViewData) { TemplateInfo = new TemplateInfo() { HtmlFieldPrefix = "Address" } };}

    @Html.Partial("_AddressPartial", Model.Address, @vdd)

// yada yada...you can imagine the rest of the very standard view

The partial view's model is Address and all hooks up. When I post back to the server the Address member is properly filled with entered data from the partial view...

So now...in my partial view, I now load the js to call the async routine to load the IP GEO data for the user - so it pre-fills the city, province, country

Any example of an ajax call will suffice...mine calls an AddressControl, returns a partialview result and replaces a div named addressData with the updated partialview :

$(function() {

var urlGeoIeoip = "http://ip-api.com/json/?callback=?";

$.ajax({
    url: urlGeoIeoip,
    type: "GET",
    dataType: "json",
    timeout: 5000,
    success: function (geoipdata) {


        $.ajax({
            url: "/getlocationdata/" + geoipdata.country + "/" + geoipdata.regionName + "/" + geoipdata.city,
            type: "GET",
            timeout: 5000,
            success: function (data) {
                //alert(data);
                //var $form = $(this);
               // var $target = $($form.attr("data-htci-target"));
                var $newHtml = $(data);
                //alert($target);
                $("#addressData").replaceWith($newHtml);
                $("#City").data("kendoComboBox").value(geoipdata.city);
                $("#State").data("kendoComboBox").value(geoipdata.regionName);
                $("#Country").data("kendoComboBox").value(geoipdata.country);
            }
        });


    }
}).fail(function(xhr, status) {
    if (status === "timeout") {
         // log timeout here
    }
});
});

All works great!

BUT

Now, when I post back to the user via the submit button, the Address child member of the parent class is null....

How do I get it to rebind the Address member of the parent class after return of the ajax call?

Answer 1

By generating your input fields in the partial view, the HTML helpers are unaware that your Address model is a property of your initial Client model, so it's generating HTML inputs like:

<input type="text" id="City" name="City" />
<input type="text" id="State" name="State" />

If your POST action method is accepting a Client model then the model binder will look for the properties City and State of the Client model, which don't exist.

You need your HTML input to look like:

<input type="text" id="Address_City" name="Address.City" />
<input type="text" id="Address_State" name="Address.State" />

Instead of using a partial for your Address fields, you should use an Editor Template which will then preserve the parent property as you need in this case.

@Html.EditorFor(x => x.Address)