Trouble with lookup in Edit view using MVC 4 EF C#

Question

I have an Edit View which is a form. I would like the user to be able to lookup/search for a UPC (search against a database table) and see the matching records on that form, so they can select a result, which would then populate a field on the Edit View form, and get submitted to POST with the form.

The piece I'm working on is the lookup/search. I have the search box on my Edit View form, and an empty div for the search results:

                            <div class="form-group" id="search-pac">
                                @Html.Action("PacSearch", "ItemRequest");
                            </div>
                            <div class="form-group" id="search-pac-results">
                            </div>

On submit, I am successfully seeing the UPC hit the controller:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PacSearch(string pacupc)
{
    if (pacupc != null)
    {
        try
        {
            List<PriceAssociationLookup> matchingPacs = new List<PriceAssociationLookup>();
            matchingPacs = matchingPacs.GetPacs(pacupc);

            return PartialView("_PacSearchResultsPartial", matchingPacs);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Alert.SetAlert(this.HttpContext, String.Format("There was an error in the Price Association Code lookup for UPC {0}.  Error: {1}", pacupc, e), "alert-warning");
        }
    }
    return PartialView("_PacSearchResultsPartial","UPC not found");
}

But I'm having trouble with what I should do in the controller in order to get the list of matching records from the database. With the code I currently have in the controller, I get the error: "Error 1 'System.Collections.Generic.List' does not contain a definition for 'GetPacs' and no extension method 'GetPacs' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)"

GetPacs is defined to accept a string. How do I pass the pacups string to GetPacs?

Here is the related class:

namespace Portal.Repository.SqlDatabase {
    public partial class PriceAssociationLookup : IPriceAssociationLookupRepository
    {
        #region IPriceAssociationLookupRepository Members
        IEnumerable<IPriceAssociationLookupRepository> IPriceAssociationLookupRepository.GetPacs(string upc)
        {
            using (PortalDataEntities entities = new PortalDataEntities())
            {
                var priceAssociationLookups = (from priceassociationlookup in entities.PriceAssociationLookups
                                               where priceassociationlookup.Upc == this.Upc
                                               select priceassociationlookup).ToList();

                return priceAssociationLookups;
            }

        }

        #endregion IPriceAssociationLookupRepository Members

Answer 1

My first recommendation would be to try removing .ToList since you are returning only an IEnumerable:

    #region IPriceAssociationLookupRepository Members
    IEnumerable<IPriceAssociationLookupRepository> IPriceAssociationLookupRepository.GetPacs(string upc)
    {
        using (PortalDataEntities entities = new PortalDataEntities())
        {
            var priceAssociationLookups = (from priceassociationlookup in entities.PriceAssociationLookups
                                           where priceassociationlookup.Upc == this.Upc
                                           select priceassociationlookup);

            return priceAssociationLookups;
        }

    }

You may get a new error in which your context has expired - but let me know.

Answer 2

Here is the answer: Controller:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PacSearch(string pacupc)
{
    if (pacupc != null)
    {
        try
        {
            PriceAssociationLookup pacRep = new PriceAssociationLookup();
            //List<PriceAssociationLookup> matchingPacs = pacRep.GetPacs(pacupc);

            return PartialView("_PacSearchResultsPartial", pacRep.GetPacs(pacupc));
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Alert.SetAlert(this.HttpContext, String.Format("There was an error in the Price Association Code lookup for UPC {0}.  Error: {1}", pacupc, e), "alert-warning");
        }
    }
    return PartialView("_PacSearchResultsPartial","UPC not found");
}

and the partial view being returned needs to be typed as:

@model List<Portal.BusinessModel.Entities.PriceAssociationLookup>

I think I may still have a problem with the return from the controller when a UPC match is not found (return PartialView("_PacSearchResultsPartial","UPC not found"); ), but the main question I originally asked has been solved with a change to the controller and partial view.