ASP.NET MVC MODEL - Passing Joins created on Models to Controllers and Views with scaffold

Question

Hi, this is the case: ASP.NET MVC C#

Model: I would like to use information defined on three tables, Product - Details - Pictures. I created a ProductRepository and defined a join of the three tables. Finally I select fields from each of these tables.

    public IQueryable ProductsList()
    {
        var db = new Entities();
        var results = from p in db.Products
                    join pi in db.ProductPic on p.ProductId equals pi.ProductId
                    // first join
                    join pv in db.ProductDetails on p.ProductId equals pv.ProductId
                    // second join
                    select new
                               {
                                   p.Name,
                                   p.Description,
                                   p.PCategory,
                                   p.ProductPicture,
                                   pv.Price,
                                   pi.Picture,
                               };
        return (results);
    }

Controller: I defined:

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var products = productrepository.ProductsList();
        if (products == null) throw new NotImplementedException();
        else
        return View("Index", products);
    }

Views: I created a strongly typed view from model Products.

When I create the view I only received the fields from Table Product, but not the fields from table Details and Picture.

My main question resides in the way it has to be created a View in order to use all the fields defined on the model (in this case = productrepository.productslist(); At this moment when I scaffold directly I only receive fields from product using strongly typed with product.

Thank you so much!.

Answer 1

You may want to return a named type from ProductsList() instead of an anonymous one. You could then use that type name in your view.

Answer 2

You strongly-typed your view to a Product type but your EF query returns an anonymous type that includes other fields. Create a class for the product view model:

class ProductViewModel
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description{ get; set; }
    public string PCategory{ get; set; }
    public string ProductPicture{ get; set; }
    public string Price { get; set; }
    public string Picture { get; set; }
}

Then in the select of your EF query, populate this type rather than your anonymous type. Also, you should independently verify that your EF query is returning the expected results.