Returning a Model to View from Action

Question

I am new to ASP.NET MVC Web Applications.

I am getting the following Error when I try to access: http://localhost:1160/View/ViewMovies

ViewMovies is an Action that returns a Model to View. Likewise, I have a similar Action named ViewCustomers, which is also giving me the same error.

Error

ViewController.cs

 public class ViewController : Controller
{
    // GET: View
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    private MovieCustomerViewModel model = new MovieCustomerViewModel();
    public ActionResult ViewMovies()
    {
        model.movies = new List<Movie> {
            new Movie{id=1,name="Shrek"},
            new Movie{id=1,name="Wall-e"}
        };
        return View(model);
    }

    public ActionResult ViewCustomers()
    {
        model.customers = new List<Customer> {
            new Customer{id=1,name="Junaid"},
            new Customer{id=1,name="Zohaib"}
        };
        return View(model);
    }
}

I have added a view folder named Movie_Customer:

It has two separate .cshtml files named, Customers.cshtml and Movies.cshtml

Customers.cshtml

@model Ex1.ViewModels.MovieCustomerViewModel


@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Customers";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}

<h2>Customers</h2>


<table class="table table-bordered table-hover" />
<tr>
    <th>ID</th>
    <th>Name</th>
</tr>

@{
    foreach (var v in Model.customers)
    {
        <tr>
            <td>v.id</td>
            <td>v.name</td>
        </tr>
    }
}

Movies.cshtml

@model Ex1.ViewModels.MovieCustomerViewModel

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Movies";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}

<h2>Movies</h2>


<table class="table table-bordered table-hover" />
<tr>
    <th>ID</th>
    <th>Name</th>
</tr>

@{
    foreach (var v in Model.movies)
    {
        <tr>
            <td>v.id</td>
            <td>v.name</td>
        </tr>
    }
}

I am doing exactly what's done here: http://techfunda.com/howto/240/return-model-to-view-from-action-method

What am I doing wrong?
How do I remove these errors? What should I must know about handling Views or View Models?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your controller is named ViewController and by convention the framework will check the ~Views/<ControllerNamePrefix>/ directory and Views/Shared/ directory for a view file matching the name that youre requesting (here you're requesting ViewCustomers and ViewMovies since you are using return View(model) the framework will look for a view with a name that matches the action. If you want to specify the name of the view then use return View("ViewName", model))

To resolve your error, you can rename your view to ViewCustomers.cshtml and ViewMovies.cshtml and put those files in a new directory: location /Views/View/.

Personally, I'd recommend renaming your controller as well since ViewController doesn't really say anything about what the controller should be responsible for. In MVC applications, most all controllers will be returning views.

In summary:

• You're requesting views named ViewCustomers.cshtml and ViewMovies.cshtml which don't exist in any folder.
• Your views are not located in the write subdirectory in the Views folder for the framework to be able to find them.