Controller using multiple models?

Question

Untill now in C# MVC3 i only had to use one controller which used only one model.

But now i think i need access to two models in my controller. I'm wondering if this is allowed in the MVC pattern?

I have a ProfileController. The ProfileController shows the profile info of a user obviously. But there's also some other data that i wish to show, like the groups a user created. For that i also have a GroupsModel.

How am i supposed to get both data from one controller?

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-29 08:35:15Z

3

How am i supposed to get both data from one controller?

By using a view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public ProfileModel Profile { get; set; }
    public GroupsModel Groups { get; set; }
}

and then passing this view model to the view:

public ActionResult ShowProfile()
{
    var model = new MyViewModel();
    model.Profile = ...
    model.Groups = ...
    return View(model);   
}

And now your view will be strongly typed to the view model:

@model MyViewModel

and you can display information:

@Html.DisplayFor(x => x.Profile.SomeProperty)

answered Mar 29, 2012 at 8:35

Darin Dimitrov

1.0m276 gold badges3.3k silver badges3k bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

w00 Over a year ago

Thanks, a good explanation. Just one thing i want to make sure though. Can i put this ViewModel in the "Models" folder too? Or is it better to create a separate folder called "ViewModels" ?

James Over a year ago

@w00 - It's entirely up to you in that respect, personally I tend to keep all my models in the same folder (irrespective of View/Data). Unless of course there comes a need to separate e.g. layered architecture.

Josh Over a year ago

This is a useful answer because it illustrates the flexibility of the @model keyword. Being able to pass any type of object as the Model means you can pass structs, which in some cases may be slightly preferable for performance.

Tim M. · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-29 08:36:12Z

1

Assuming that you aren't putting too much into a single view/controller, why not compose a simple view model which has the data you need?

public class ProfileInfo
{
   public Person Person
   {
      get;
      set;
   }

   public List<Group> Groups
   {
       get;
       set;
   }
}

answered Mar 29, 2012 at 8:36

Tim M.

54.5k14 gold badges126 silver badges167 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Controller using multiple models?

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related