ASP.NET MVC. How insert a SelectList inside an Partial?

Question

I would like to create an partial which holds a select for a previously configured list.

in the controller I'm able to create the SelectList and add it to ViewBag. However ViewBag defined on controller are not propagated to the Partial. Partials have its own ViewBag

for instance this POCO item class:

class MyItem{
    [Key] 
    public int id {get;set;}
    public int Forign_element_id {get;set;}
    public string PropB {get;set;}
}   

And its Partial like this:

@model MyItem

@Html.HiddenFor(model => model.id)

@Html.LabelFor(model => model.PropA)
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Forign_element_id, (SelectList)ViewBag.MySelectList) 
//Error! ViewBag are not propageted to the EditorTemplate

@Html.LabelFor(model => model.PropB)
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.PropB)

Important. Each item in the list has a Forign_element_id value. This values must be selected in select box at rendering.

Answer 1

Try this in your editor template: Instead of (Dictionary) cast it to your type; in my case, I was passing Dictionary from the calling layer; so I have used it as new SelectList(list, "Key", "Value"), change accordingly

Name of Editor Template - DropdownList

@{
var defaultText = (string)ViewData["DefaultText"];
//var list = (Dictionary<string, string>) ViewData["List"]; -- my List was Dictionary
var list = (List<YourType>) ViewData["List"];
}
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model,
new SelectList(list, "Key", "Value"),
defaultText,
new { @class = "form-  control", style="height: auto;width:90%"   })

EDIT - adding calling code

@Html.EditorFor(model => model.YourModel, "DropdownList", new { List = ViewBag.YourList, DefaultText = "Select one item"})

where "DropdownList" is editor template name