MVC viewmodel & navigation property

Question

I have a model:

public partial class VisitorLog
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string VisitorName { get; set; }
    public DateTime TimeIn { get; set; }
    public DateTime TimeOut { get; set; }
    public string CompanyName { get; set; }
    public string EmployeeID { get; set; }
    public string VisitReason { get; set; }

    // Navigation properties
    [ForeignKey("EmployeeID")]
    public virtual Employee Employee { get; set; }
}

a generic repository:

public class GenericRepository<C, T> : IGenericRepository<T> where T : class where C : DbContext, new()
{
    private C _entities = new C();
    public C Context
    {
        get { return _entities; }
        set { _entities = value; }
    }

    public virtual IQueryable<T> GetAll()
    {
        IQueryable<T> query = _entities.Set<T>();
        return query;
    }

    public IQueryable<T> FindBy(System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate)
    {
        IQueryable<T> query = _entities.Set<T>().Where(predicate);
        return query;
    }

    public virtual void Add(T entity)
    {
        _entities.Set<T>().Add(entity);
    }

    public virtual void Delete(T entity)
    {
        _entities.Entry(entity).State = System.Data.EntityState.Deleted;
    }

    public virtual void Edit(T entity)
    {
        _entities.Entry(entity).State = System.Data.EntityState.Modified;
    }

    public virtual void Save()
    {
        _entities.SaveChanges();
    }
}

an interface for the generic repository:

public interface IGenericRepository<T> where T : class
{
    IQueryable<T> GetAll();
    IQueryable<T> FindBy(Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate);
    void Add(T entity);
    void Delete(T entity);
    void Edit(T entity);
    void Save();
}

my model-specific repository (which inherits the generic):

public class VisitorLogRepository : GenericRepository<VisitorLogDBContext, VisitorLog>, IVisitorLogRepository {

    public VisitorLog GetSingle(int id)
    {
        var query = GetAll().FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == id);
        return query;
    }
}

public class SearchViewModel
{
    public IEnumerable<VisitorLog> VisitorLogs { get; set; }
}

my controller that is loading a viewmodel into the view:

    var searchViewModel = new SearchViewModel
{
    VisitorLogs = iVisitorlogRepository.FindBy(v => v.VisitorName.Contains(searchText)
        || v.CompanyName.Contains(searchText)
        || v.EmployeeID.Contains(searchText)),
};

and finally my view:

@model VisitorLogApp.ViewModels.SearchViewModel

@foreach (var item in ViewData.Model.VisitorLogs) {
    <tr>
        <td>
            @Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit", new { id=item.Id }) |
            @Html.ActionLink("Details", "Details", new { id=item.Id }) |
            @Html.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete", new { id=item.Id })
        </td>
        <td>
            @item.VisitorName
        </td>
        <td>
            @item.CompanyName
        </td>
        <td>
            @item.Employees.EmployeeName
        </td>
        <td>
            @String.Format("{0:g}", item.TimeIn)
        </td>
        <td>
            @String.Format("{0:g}", item.TimeOut)
        </td>
        <td>
            @item.VisitReason
        </td>
    </tr>

Everything is working great with one exception. The view shows a list of Visitors (VisitorLog). Using navigation properties I was able to get the EmployeeName value to show instead of the employee ID from the VisitorLog class by simply using @item.Employees.EmployeeName. However, I also want to be able to search by employee name in my repository call in the controller:

VisitorLogs = iVisitorlogRepository.FindBy(v => v.VisitorName.Contains(searchText)
|| v.CompanyName.Contains(searchText)
|| v.Employees.EmployeeName.Contains(searchText)),

but Employees.EmployeeName in the example above is not showing as an option in the list members for "v".

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Looks like this might just be a typo - the navigation property in your class is called Employee, not Employees. Does the following work?

VisitorLogs = iVisitorlogRepository.FindBy(
    v => v.VisitorName.Contains(searchText)
    || v.CompanyName.Contains(searchText)
    || v.Employee.EmployeeName.Contains(searchText)),

If this was the reason, you've done the same thing in the View.