Easiest way to load multiple models on a single view on .NET's MVC5

Question

I am a total beginner on .NET and MVC5. I have created -using scaffolds-, all the catalogs sets of views/controllers/models for my web app. They work just fine, each one on its corresponding menu.

But want I want to do is to have a single view with a Twitter Bootstrap's tab panel, in which one tab will represent a catalog of my app.

I have been reading this article, which as far as I can get with my limited knowledge on the matter, show 6 ways to do what I am looking to do.

This would be my main controller, all other controllers depend on it:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using TestSite.Models;

namespace TestSite.Controllers
{
    public class ClientsController : Controller
    {
        private TestSiteDBContext db = new TestSiteDBContext();

        // GET: Clients
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View(db.Clients.ToList());
        }

        // GET: Clients/Details/5
        public ActionResult Details(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Client client = db.Clients.Find(id);
            if (client == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(client);
        }

        // GET: Clients/Create
        public ActionResult Create()
        {
            return View();
        }

        // POST: Clients/Create
        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for 
        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.
        [HttpPost]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult Create([Bind(Include = "ID,name,logoName,status,creationDate")] Client client)
        {
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                db.Clients.Add(client);
                db.SaveChanges();
                return RedirectToAction("Index");
            }

            return View(client);
        }

        // GET: Clients/Edit/5
        public ActionResult Edit(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Client client = db.Clients.Find(id);
            if (client == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(client);
        }

        // POST: Clients/Edit/5
        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for 
        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.
        [HttpPost]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult Edit([Bind(Include = "ID,name,logoName,status,creationDate")] Client client)
        {
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                db.Entry(client).State = EntityState.Modified;
                db.SaveChanges();
                return RedirectToAction("Index");
            }
            return View(client);
        }

        // GET: Clients/Delete/5
        public ActionResult Delete(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Client client = db.Clients.Find(id);
            if (client == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(client);
        }

        // POST: Clients/Delete/5
        [HttpPost, ActionName("Delete")]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult DeleteConfirmed(int id)
        {
            Client client = db.Clients.Find(id);
            db.Clients.Remove(client);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing)
            {
                db.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }
    }
}

And other controllers such as departments, should be showing their contents inside the clients' show views:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using TestSite.Models;

namespace TestSite.Controllers
{
    public class DepartmentsController : Controller
    {
        private TestSiteDBContext db = new TestSiteDBContext();

        // GET: Departments
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View(db.Departments.ToList());
        }

        // GET: Departments/Details/5
        public ActionResult Details(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Department department = db.Departments.Find(id);
            if (department == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(department);
        }

        // GET: Departments/Create
        public ActionResult Create()
        {
            ViewBag.BranchList = new SelectList(db.Branches, "ID", "name");
            return View();
        }

        // POST: Departments/Create
        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for 
        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.
        [HttpPost]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult Create([Bind(Include = "id,name,branchId,creationDate")] Department department)
        {
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                db.Departments.Add(department);
                db.SaveChanges();
                return RedirectToAction("Index");
            }

            return View(department);
        }

        // GET: Departments/Edit/5
        public ActionResult Edit(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Department department = db.Departments.Find(id);
            if (department == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(department);
        }

        // POST: Departments/Edit/5
        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for 
        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.
        [HttpPost]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult Edit([Bind(Include = "id,name,branchId,creationDate")] Department department)
        {
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                db.Entry(department).State = EntityState.Modified;
                db.SaveChanges();
                return RedirectToAction("Index");
            }
            return View(department);
        }

        // GET: Departments/Delete/5
        public ActionResult Delete(int? id)
        {
            if (id == null)
            {
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
            }
            Department department = db.Departments.Find(id);
            if (department == null)
            {
                return HttpNotFound();
            }
            return View(department);
        }

        // POST: Departments/Delete/5
        [HttpPost, ActionName("Delete")]
        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
        public ActionResult DeleteConfirmed(int id)
        {
            Department department = db.Departments.Find(id);
            db.Departments.Remove(department);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing)
            {
                db.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }
    }
}

I would like to ask you for advice on which one of those 6 methods should I focus first. Thanks!

letsjak · Answer 1 · 2014-08-27T00:41:53.853

Your best option:

ViewBag

ViewBag is also used to pass data from a controller to a view. It is a dynamic property which comes in ControllerBase class that is why it doesn’t require typecasting for datatype.

Controller

public class MyController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.MyProperty = 5;

        return View();
    }
}

View

<h1>@ViewBag.MyProperty</h1>

Partial view is used where you need to share the same code (Razor and HTML code) in more than one view. For more details about PartialView, please visit here. I do not think that is the case here.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

This post on a similar problem on Stack Overflow proved to be helpful. I went with the approach of creating two partial views with two different models and rendering one into the other. The post says to use either

@{Html.RenderPartial("PartialView", ViewBag.Controller);}

or @{Html.RenderPartial("PartialView", Model.Model)} but what worked for me was using

@{Html.RenderAction("PartialView", "controller");}

Here is the link to the post, hope I was of some help - Multiple models in a view

Easiest way to load multiple models on a single view on .NET's MVC5

2 Answers2

Controller

View