ASP.NET MVC 4 searching from existing database

Question

I was wondering if anyone could help me with making a datacontext on existing database and searching from it.

What i've done so far:

1. Made connectionstring for existing database on web.config (same name as my newly created DataContext class)
2. Made DataContext class, and model class for it where are the fields i want to get.
3. Made controller for it which calls for the search
4. Made view for the controller

Here is the code i've used.

DataContext class

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Data.Entity;

namespace KendoUIMvcCim.Models
{
    public class CustDataContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<Contacts> CLIENT { get; set; }

    }
}

Model class for the information i want to search

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace KendoUIMvcCim.Models
{
    public class Contacts
    {
        [Key]
        public int CLIENT_ID { get; set; }
        public string FIRSTNAME { get; set; }
        public string LASTNAME { get; set; }
        public string TEL_TEL1 { get; set; }
        public string TEL_TEL2 { get; set; }
        public string TEL_GSM { get; set; }
    }
}

Controller

public ActionResult Testi(int? clientid)
        {
            using (var db = new CustDataContext()) 
         {
           var contact = db.CLIENT.Find(clientid);

             if (contact != null)
             {
                 return View(contact);
             }
             else
             {
                 return RedirectToAction("Index", "Customer");
             }

         }

Any help would be appreciated!

Best regards, Eero

Answer 1

Use Linq like this:

    public ActionResult Index(string searchTerm = null)
    {

        var model =
            _db.Clients
            .Where(r => searchTerm == null || r.FirstName.StartsWith(searchTerm) || r.LastName.StartsWith(searchTerm))
                .Take(10)
                .Select r;

        return View(model);
    }

Index view could be like this:

@model IEnumerable<AppName.Models.ModelName>

@{
   ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}

<form method="GET">
    <input type="search" name="searchTerm" />
    <input type="submit" value="Search for a name"/>
</form>
@try
{
    foreach (var item in Model)
    {
        <h3>@Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.FirstName)</h3>
        <p>@Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.LastName)</p>

    }
}
catch (NullReferenceException nullex)
{
    <p>@nullex</p>
}