Passing two different models to a view with ASP.Net MVC

Question

I'm trying to set up a view that displays two different models. For example, I have a "Details" view that shows details of a customer; which I am passing my customer model. I also want to have a section on the page under the customer information (I was thinking about using a partial view) that lists their pets (for a vet practice). I tried to set up a partial view and in the dialogue box I indicated to use the "pet" model, but was unsuccessfull in my attempt. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Make a stongly typed view taking a type like

Pair<Customer, Pet> (or Pair(of Customer, Pet)) if using VB

or just pass a

Pair<Customer, Pet>

object in the view data object.

Then pass the Pet object to the partial view.

Answer 2

Create a class that contains the Customer data and the Pet data:

public class CustomerDetailsViewModel
{
    public Customer Customer { get; set; }
    public IList<Pet> Pets { get; set; }
}

That is your model for the view. Inside the view, use Model.Customer for your customer data and pass Model.Pets to your partial view which is strongly-type to IList<Pet>.

Answer 3

A partial view would be great for pets list. Just create an strongly typed .ascx as:

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<PetList>" %>

Then display it from the main page. You may wish to use the same pets list control on another pages.