MVC2 and two different models using same controller method? Possible?

Question

I don't know if this is the right way of doing this or not, but I am using Jquery and MVC2. I am using a the $.ajax method to make a call back to a controller to do some business logic on a .blur of a textbox.

I have two views that basically do the same thing with the common data, but are using different models. They both use the same controller. It might be easier to explain with code:

So here are the two models:

public class RecordModel {
    public string RecordID { get; set; }
    public string OtherProperties { get; set; }
}

public class SecondaryModel {
    public string RecordID { get; set; }
    public string OtherPropertiesDifferentThanOtherModel { get; set; }
}

There are two views that are strongly typed to these models. One is RecordModel, the other SecondaryModel.

Now on these views is a input="text" that is created via:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.RecordID) %>

There is jQuery javascript that binds the .blur method to a call:

<script>
    $('#RecordID').blur(function() {
        var data = new Object();
        data.RecordID = $('#RecordID').val();
        // Any other stuff needed

        $.ajax({
            url: '/Controller/ValidateRecordID',
            type: 'post',
            dataType: 'json',
            data: data,
            success: function(result) {
                 alert('success: ' + result);
            },
            error: function(result) {
                 alert('failed');
            }
         });
      }
 </script>

The controller looks like:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ValidateRecordID(RecordModel model) {
    // TODO: Do some verification code here

    return this.Json("Validated.");
}

Now this works fine if I explicitly name the RecordModel in the controller for the View that uses the RecordModel. However, the SecondaryModel view also tries to call this function, and it fails because it's expecting the RecordModel and not the SecondaryModel.

So my question is this. How can two different strongly typed views use the same Action in a controller and still adhering to the modeling pattern? I've tried abstract classes and interfaces (and changing the view pages to use the Interface/abstract class) and it still fails.

Any help? And sorry for the robustness of the post...

Thanks.

Answer 1

You could define an interface for those classes.

interface IRecord
{
    string RecordID { get; set; }
    string OtherProperties { get; set; }
}

and make the method receive the model by using that:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ValidateRecordID(IRecord model) 
{
    // TODO: Do some verification code here

    return this.Json("Validated.");
}

Answer 2

There is no direct way of binding data to a interface/abstract class. The DefaultModelBinder will try to instantiate that type, which is (by definition) impossible.

So, IMHO, you should not use that option. And if you still want to share the same controller action between the two views, the usual way of doing that would be using a ViewModel.

Make your strongly-typed views reference that viewmodel. Make the single shared action receive an instance of it. Inside the action, you will decide which "real" model should be used...

If you need some parameter in order to distinguish where the post came from (view 1 or 2), just add that parameter to the ajax call URL.

Of course, another way is keeping what you have already tried (interface/abstract class), but you'll need a custom Model Binder in that case... Sounds like overcoding to me, but it's your choice.

Edit After my dear SO fellow @Charles Boyung made a gracious (and wrong) comment below, I've come to the conclusion that my answer was not exactly accurate. So I have fixed some of the terminology that I've used here - hope it is clearer now.

Answer 3

If you only need the RecordID, you can just have the controller method take int RecordID and it will pull that out of the form post data instead of building the view model back up and providing that to your action method.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ValidateRecordID(int RecordID) {
    // TODO: Do some verification code here

    return this.Json("Validated.");
}

Answer 4

In the case above your action could accept two strings instead of a concrete type.

Another possibility is having two actions. Each action taking one of your types. I'm assuming that functionality each type is basically the same. Once the values have been extracted hand them off to a method. In your case method will probably be the same for each action.

public ActionResult Method1(Record record)
{
ProcessAction(record.id, record.Property);

}

public ActionResult Action2(OtherRecord record)
{

ProcessAction(record.id, record.OtherProperty);

}


private void ProcessAction(string id, string otherproperity)
{
//make happen
}