How do I post varied length list to controller?

Question

MVC4. I have a dynamic list on a view, a new textbox is added with button click (which adds a partialView) so user can enter a list of stuff. That is contained in a form element with a submit button.

In the controller I have tried three different types:

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(IEnumerable<AccessoryVM> form)
    {
           -- form is NULL


    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(AccessoryVM form)
    {
           -- form has only the first item in the list


    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(FormCollection form)
    {
        -- seems to receive the list, but having trouble getting the values

All the examples I have seen are using a for list to add an index to each item, but they aren't using a dynamic list (it has a fixed length).

What should the Controller receiving type be?

EDIT to add more detail:

Button click appends partial view:

$("#add-item").on("click", function () {
    $.ajax({
        url: '/Accessory/AddItem',
        cache: false,
        success: function (html) {
            $("#form-body").append(html);
        }
    })
    return false;
})

Partial View:

@model EmployeeHardwareRequest.Models.ViewModels.AccessoryVM

<div class="form-group col-md-3">
    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.ItemDescription, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label" })
    <div>
        @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.AccessoryId, Model.AccessoryDdl, new { @class = "form-control" })
    </div>
</div>

<div class="form-group col-md-9">
    @Html.LabelFor(model => model.ProductLink, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label" })
    <div>
        @Html.EditorFor(model => model.ProductLink, new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "form-control" } })
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ProductLink, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
    </div>
</div>

Main View - partial is appended to the #form-body:

    @using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Accessory", FormMethod.Post, new { @id="accessory-form", @class = "form-horizontal" }))
        {
        @Html.AntiForgeryToken()

        @Html.ValidationSummary(true, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })

                <div id="form-body">
                    <div class="form-group col-md-3">
                        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.ItemDescription, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label" })
                        <div>
                            @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.SelectedAccessory, Model.AccessoryDdl, new { @class = "form-control" })
                        </div>
                    </div>

                    <div class="form-group col-md-9">
                        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.ProductLink, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label" })
                        <div>
                            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.ProductLink, new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "form-control" } })
                            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ProductLink, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>

            <div class="row">
                <div class="col-md-6">
                    <button id="add-item" class="btn btn-primary">Add Another Item</button>
                </div>
                <div class="col-md-6">
                    <input type="submit" value="Select Software" class="btn btn-default pull-right" />
                </div>
            </div>
        }

Answer 1

Most likely, you have a binding issue. Assuming all you're posting is a collection of AccessoryVM, then the parameter should be List<AccessoryVM> form. However, in order for the modelbinder properly bind the posted values, your input names must be in a specific format, namely either form[N].Foo or just [N].Foo.

You haven't given any detail about what's going on in your view, but since these are dynamically added, you must be using JavaScript to add additional inputs to the page. If you're doing it via AJAX (returning a partial view), you'll need to pass the index to your endpoint so that it can be utilized to generate the right input names. If you're using something like Knockout, Angular, etc., you should ensure that whatever template is being used to generate the inputs takes an index into account.