How to bind a model property with DefaultModelBinder - ASP.NET MVC2

Question

I have the following scenario.

1. I have the Edit/Employee view populated with a model from an Entity Framework entity (Employee)
2. I post from Edit/Employee to the Save/Employee controller action. The Save/Employee action expect another type (EmployeeSave) which has Employee as property

This is the Edit/Employee method

    public ActionResult Edit(EmployeesEdit command)
    {
        var employee = command.Execute();
        if (employee != null)
        {
            return View(employee);
        }
        return View("Index");
    }

This is the Save/Employee method

  public ActionResult Save(EmployeesSave command)
    {
        var result = command.Execute();
        if (result)
        {
            return View(command.Employee);
        }
        return View("Error");
    }

This is the EmployeeSave class

public class EmployeesSave
{
    public bool Execute()
    {
        // ... save the employee   
        return true;

    }
    //I want this prop populated by my model binder
    public Employee Employee { get; set; }  
}

The MVC DefaultModelBinder is able to resolve both Employee and EmployeeSave classes.

Answer 1

You might need to use BindAttribute here. If your view contains the properties of the EmployeeSaveViewModel and Employee named like this (I made up property names)

<input type="text" name="EmployeeSaveViewModel.Property1" />
<input type="text" name="EmployeeSaveViewModel.Employee.Name" />
<input type="text" name="EmployeeSaveViewModel.Employee.SomeProperty" />

Then, your action could look like this:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save([Bind(Prefix="EmployeeSaveViewModel")] 
                         EmployeeSaveViewModel vm)
{
    if(ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        // do something fancy
    }

    // go back to Edit to correct errors
    return View("Edit", vm);
}