Asp.net MVC UpdateModel() Prefix Without Magic String?

Question

Is there any way to have a strongly typed UpdateModel(myEntity, MagicStringPrefix) without the magic string?

So I have a view model looking like

public class FooViewModel {
    public Foo Foo { get; set; }
    ...
}

And in my controller I have

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection collection)
{
    var foo = _fooRepo.GetFoo(id);

    try
    {
        UpdateModel(foo, "Foo");
        _fooRepo.Save();

        return RedirectToAction("Index");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return View(new FooViewModel(foo));
    }
}

I would like to do this without having to use magic strings. Something like UpdateModel(foo, Model.Foo) would be fine. However, I prefer to simply have UpdateModel(foo) and have it infer the prefix given Foo is the class name, but I really don't want to have to write my own ModelBinder.

Answer 1

You should be able to pass in a strongly typed object in your action method provided that you have all the property name match. I don't think you need to write your own model binding to achieve this.

Read this blog to get some idea.

Answer 2

You can define your own update method:

    protected void MyUpdateModel<T>(T model) where T : class
    {
        UpdateModel(model, model.GetType().Name);
    }