How do I specify a strongly-typed html helper that uses a nested class of the model instead of the model itself?

Question

I am creating a strongly-typed search form in ASP.NET MVC 2 that posts to a results page via FormMethod.Get (i.e. the form inputs and their values are posted to the search results query string). How do I specify strongly-typed html helpers that use a nested class of the model instead of the model itself so that I don't get the dot notation for the input names in the query string?

My strongly-typed view model class looks like:

public class SearchViewModel
{
    public SearchQuery SearchQuery { get; set; }

    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> StateOptions { get; set; }
    ...
}

The SearchQuery class looks like:

public class SearchQuery
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string State { get; set; }
    ...
}

Doing this:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.SearchQuery.Name)%>

will generated an input with name SearchQuery.Name, which will place &SearchQuery.Name=blah in the query string when the form is posted. Instead, I would prefer just &Name=blah, as only SearchQuery properties will have associated form elements.

I'm assuming I have to do something with the Html.TextBoxFor Linq expression, but I can't seem to get the syntax right..

Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

One way around this is to make Name a propery of the ViewModel ie:

public string Name{ get{ return this.SearchQuery.Name; } }

And in the view:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Name)%>

Whether or not this is a good idea is another question.