Razor, MVC4, #html.dropdownlistfor problems - razor

Question

I'm trying to create a drop down list that populates from a database. I have:
public class Employee
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public String FirstName { get; set; }
[Required]
public String LastName { get; set; }
[Required]
public String JobTitle { get; set; }
}
public class Project
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public String ProjectName { get; set; }
[Required]
public String CompanyName { get; set; }
}
public class ProjectHour
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
public decimal Hours { get; set; }
[Required]
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Employee> employeeId { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Project> projectId { get; set; }
}
What I want is to create a form that will create new project hours associated with a project and an employee. I'm trying to use dropdownlists to display the employees and the projects on the create form. Obviously, I'm completely new at this, but what I have so far is:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult CreateProjectHour(ProjectHour newProjectHour)
{
using (var db = new TimesheetContext())
{
IEnumerable<SelectListItem> emp = db.Employees
.Select(c => new SelectListItem
{
Value = c.Id.ToString(),
Text = c.LastName
});
ViewBag.EmployeeId = emp;
db.ProjectHours.Add(newProjectHour);
db.SaveChanges();
}
return RedirectToAction("ProjectHourList");
}
}
And on the form:
#model TimesheetMVC.Models.ProjectHour
...
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.employeeId, (SelectList)ViewBag.EmployeeId)
Which is apparently horribly wrong. Any help would be much appreciated...!

Answer 1

Don't use the same name EmployeeId. You need 2 things to create a dropdown list in ASP.NET MVC: a scalar property that will hold the selected value and a collection property that will contain the possible values. But since you are using the ViewBag (which I totally recommend against) you could do the following:
ViewBag.Employees = emp;
and in your view:
#Html.DropDownListFor(
model => model.employeeId,
(IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.Employees
)
But as I said this is not at all an approach that I recommend. I recommend using view models. So define an IEnumerable<SelectListItem> property on your view model:
public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Employees { get; set; }
and in your controller populate this view model property and then make your view strongly typed to the view model.

Answer 2

Or you could just do a
in the controller
SelectList selectList = new SelectList(db.Employees, "Id", "LastName");
ViewBag.EmployeeList = selectList;
and in the View
#Html.DropDownBoxFor(model => model.id_Employee, ViewBag.EmployeeList as SelectList)
I find this approach easier.

Answer 3

EmployeeId is an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>, not a SelectList.
Therefore, your cast cannot work.
You need to explicitly create a SelectList.