Using 'Html.EditorFor' to pass data to controller using ViewBag

Question

I have an issue using ViewBag with Html.EditorFor. I am trying to pass data from a form field named "ID" from view 'Create.chtml' back to controller. I would like to use ViewBag for this. When I tried to do as I did in the View below, it's throwing an error:

Compiler Error Message: CS1973: 'System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' has no applicable method named 'EditorFor' but appears to have an extension method by that name. Extension methods cannot be dynamically dispatched. Consider casting the dynamic arguments or calling the extension method without the extension method syntax.

Please let me know where I am doing it wrong.

Controller:

[HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Create(TABLE_CODES dc)
        {
            try
            {
                using (var db = new InpEntities())
                {
                    TABLE_CODES codes = new TABLE_CODES(); //TABLE_CODES has data with various columns  - ID, NAME, DATE, SOURCE etc.
                    ViewBag.keys = codes;
                    
                    db.AddToTABLE_CODES(dc);

                    db.SaveChanges();
                }

                return RedirectToAction("Index");
            catch
            {
                return View();
            }
        }

View: Create.chtml

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Create";
}

<h2>Create</h2>
@using (Html.BeginForm()) {
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)
    <fieldset>
    
        <div class="editor-label">ID</div>

        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(ViewBag.keys.ID) @****** THIS IS NOT WORKING ********@
        </div>
        
        <p>
            <input type="submit" value="Create" />
        </p>
    </fieldset>
}

<div>
    @Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index")
</div>

Matt Houser · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-06 18:51:56Z

4

@Html.EditorFor requires a strongly-typed model. It cannot be used with data from the ViewBag.

If you must use ViewBag to pass data to the view, use @Html.TextFor(...) instead to manually setup the input field.

However, I recommend you use a strongly-typed model.

Edit:

Model:

public class MyModel
{
  public TABLE_CODES Keys { get; set; }
}

Controller:

var model = new MyModel();
model.Keys = new TABLE_CODES();
return View(model);

View:

@model MvcApplication1.MyModel
....

@Html.EditorFor(m => m.Keys)

answered Jun 6, 2013 at 18:51

Matt Houser

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8 Comments

sunskin Over a year ago

Hi Matt! Thanks for your response. I am trying to pass data from View to Controller using ViewBag not other way round.

sunskin Over a year ago

I could use " @Html.Editor("keys.ID",(int)ViewBag.keys.ID)" which helped me avoid that error but the ID value is not being passed from view to controller. While debugging the HttpPost part of Create in controller, its showing as ID = 0

Matt Houser Over a year ago

You cannot "pass data" from view to controller. Data moves one way only. Using your modified Editor call, your HTML input will have ID="keys.ID", which won't match to 'id' during the postback. Try using @Html.Editor("id", (int)...)

sunskin Over a year ago

Great! Thank Matt. It worked like a charm. The reason I am using viewbag as I have to access two different models data in a view. I will try viewModel when I have some time

sunskin Over a year ago

well, its complaining about "Cannot convert null to 'int' because it is a non-nullable value type"

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