Why is the Edit code in my ASP.NET MVC application not working?

Question

For some reason, the edit action below get to the edit view form fine, but when I hit submit on my view page to post on the second method below, the companyToEdit structure do not contain the companyID and I get an exception. This is weird since, I have done this before and I get the id field in other instances.

If I put in the view the section of code below:

            <p>
                <label for="CompanyID">CompanyID:</label>
                <%= Html.TextBox("CompanyID", Model.CompanyID) %>
                <%= Html.ValidationMessage("CompanyID", "*") %>
            </p>

Then it will work just fine. But if I take that away, since the CompanyID is a read-only field it stops working. Any ideas?

    //
    // GET: /Company/Edit/5

    public ActionResult Edit(int id)
    {
        var companyToEdit = _repository.GetCompany(id);
        return View(companyToEdit);
    }

    //
    // POST: /Company/Edit/5

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult Edit(int id, Company companyToEdit)
    {
        if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            return View();
        try
        {
            _repository.Update(companyToEdit);
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }
        catch
        {
            return View();
        }
    }

EDIT 2: I guess I can do something similar to this, and hide the ID in a hash value like the one below. I think this will be the ultimate solution, where we will get the most secure and the less complexity.

<input id="fkey" name="fkey" type="hidden" value="4a3d337bf38b35e9ff4167cfa878160b">

Answer 1

Try changing the name of your text box from CompanyID to companyToEdit.CompanyID. Also make sure these fields are enclosed within a form (i.e., using Html.BeginForm).

Answer 2

you must have the id field on the edit form so just put it like this

<%=Html.Hidden("CompanyID",Model.CompanyID) %>

Answer 3

you can store the id in the Session on the Edit (get) method and put it back in the Company object on the Edit (post) method

Answer 4

The obvious solution to the ID guessing you have suggested in the comments is to add another field to the Model called Key or similar, and make it a Guid, e.g.

public class User
{
    public int Id {get;set;}
    public Guid Key {get;set;}
}

You can then use this as a hidden field inside your View. You would benefit from making this an indexed column in the database (ideally you would make this the none-clustered primary key, and ditch the int for the Id field).

Then your view:

<%=Html.Hidden("Key",Model.Key) %>

Should automatically fill the parameter of the Controller method when it posts. If it doesn't then there may be a form tag issue.

Answer 5

The variable name should match the textbox object name which is CompanyID or use request,form("CompanyID")