Bind complex object model to view

Question

I need to bind a complex object(model) to the view. I have a search model and search view..

Search Model,

public class SearchModel
{
    public SearchCriteria SearchCriteria { get; set; }
    .....
}

Search Criteria

public class SearchCriteria
{
    public int AccountId { get; set; }
    public string AccountName { get; set; }
    ......
}

Search View

@Html.LabelFor(x => x.SearchCriteria.AccountId, "Account ID")
@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.SearchCriteria.AccountId)
@Html.LabelFor(x => x.SearchCriteria.AccountName, "Account Name")
@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.SearchCriteria.AccountName)

This is rendered as

<label for="SearchCriteria_AccountId">Account ID</label>
<input id="SearchCriteria_AccountId" name="SearchCriteria.AccountId" type="text" value="">
<label for="SearchCriteria_AccountName">Account Name</label>
<input id="SearchCriteria_AccountName" name="SearchCriteria.AccountName" type="text" value="">

control name is rendering as SearchCriteria.AccountId , SearchCriteria.AccountName and control id is rendering as SearchCriteria_AccountId , SearchCriteria_AccountName

and when submitting the form in get request, querystring will be looks like,

?SearchCriteria.AccountId=1&SearchCriteria.AccountName=aaa

Is there any way to change them to display without SearchCriteria suffix?

so control name should render as AccountId , AccountName and control id should render as AccountId , AccountName

and querystring should looks like,

?AccountId=1&AccountName=aaa

Answer 1

There is no way to change that if you want MVC to do the automated binding. You could of course provide your own name if you wanted. However, a more recommended approach would be to build a ViewModel like this:

public class SearchViewModel
{
    public int AccountId { get; set; }
    public string AccountName { get; set; }
    ...
}

that flattened the complex model. The reason this is the recommended approach is because a View isn't really a complex model , it's simply a view of a more complex underlying model. You could then use an auto mapper to very easily map the flattened ViewModel back into the complex model at the very top of your controller method.