MVC Model Binding: Using a name different from the QueryString for the Method Parameter

Question

Given a URL:

http://www.stackoverflow.com/question?ask=123&answers=5

and its corresponding ActionMethod and Model:

public ActionResult Question(RequestObject request)
{
   return View("Question", request);
}

public class RequestObject
{
   public string AskId
   {
      get;
      set;
   }

   public string NumberOfAnswers
   {
      get;
      set;
   }
}

Notice that the QueryString and the parameters of the RequestObject are different. Can I achieve that with the default binding behavior? Do I need to create a custom binder?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You could use explicit object initialization:

public ActionResult Question(string ask, string answers)
{
    return View("Question", new RequestObject
    {
        AskId = ask,
        NumberOfAnswers = answers
    });
}

Answer 2

Override DefaultModelBinder. Particularily, its BindProperty method.

Answer 3

It sounds like a custom model binder is what you want. Scott Hanselman has a good example of implementing custom binders here