Change item queue in #Html.EnumDropDownListFor - html

Question

There's this enum
public enum UserStatus
{
Employee = 0,
Evaluation,
Dismissed,
Registered,
}
And on view
#Html.EnumDropDownListFor(model => model.User.Metadata.Status)
So it show me Employee as default option and all other items with enum queue (E,E,D,R). But i'd like to show items in this queue (Evaluation, Registered, Employee, Dismissed) (Mainly Evaluation must be first).
I cant change the enum, and i cant set as default in GET controller (due to model realization).
Any ideas how solve this problem?

Answer 1

I don't think you can change the list during runtime on how it appears. The easiest way i can think to handle such problem ( where you can't change the sequence in which the enum values appear ) is to add attribute on each enum value that defines the sequence number and then extract all the items in a specific enum to create a list which can be binded to the view. This might be an extra work but would solve your issue.
Here's a sample code :
public class Sequence : Attribute
{
public int SequenceNum { get; set; }
}
public enum UserStatus
{
[Sequence(SequenceNum=3)]
Employee = 0,
[Sequence(SequenceNum = 2)]
Evaluation,
[Sequence(SequenceNum = 4)]
Dismissed,
[Sequence(SequenceNum = 1)]
Registered,
}
In your model class :
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> ListData { get; set; }
public UserStatus Status { get; set; }
In your controller :
List<KeyValuePair<int,string>> KeyValueList = new List<KeyValuePair<int,string>>();
// Get all the enum values
var values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(UserStatus)).Cast<UserStatus>();
// Iterate through each enum value to create a keyvalue list
foreach (var item in values)
{
var type = typeof(UserStatus);
var memInfo = type.GetMember(item.ToString());
var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(Sequence),false);
KeyValueList.Add(new KeyValuePair<int,string>(((Sequence)attributes[0]).SequenceNum,item.ToString()));
}
// Sort the keyvalue list based on the *SequenceNum* attribute
KeyValueList.Sort((firstPair, nextPair) =>
{
return nextPair.Value.CompareTo(firstPair.Value);
});
// Add SelectListItem collection to a model property - Apparently you can add the generate collection to a ViewData ( if you don't wish to create another property )
model.ListData = KeyValueList.Select(x => new SelectListItem { Value = x.Key.ToString(), Text = x.Value }).ToList();
In your View :
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Status, Model.ListData));
When you post the data, the model property Status would be populated with the selected Enum value.
Hope it helps.