Transferring data entities from a DataService class to a view in MVC - asp.net

Question

I'm trying to learn MVC. I'm having some trouble understanding how to return data from my DataService class to my view. Here's the structure of my solution so far:
The solution contains two projects and a database. The first project is my DataService project that contains my Entity Model and my service class called AppDataService.
The second project is the website itself. It contains my HomeController, an Index view, and my inventory model which contains two models: An Item and the DB Context for Items called Catalog.
The goal of the application is to create a simple application that displays the inventory of a stock room and displays the information for a user. It's not for a homework assignment so there are no predefined objectives. I'm just trying to learn the MVC convention on my own. I realize that this is a pretty basic question, but I'm kind of at a dead end.
Here's my code:
AppDataServices:
public class AppDataService:IAppDataService
{
public Inventory GetItem(string srch)
{
Inventory item = null;
using (var data = new WCSDatabaseEntities())
{
item = data.Inventories.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name == srch);
}
return item;
}
public List<Inventory> GetCatalog()
{
List<Inventory> catalog = null;
using (var data = new WCSDatabaseEntities())
{
catalog = data.Inventories.ToList();
}
return catalog;
}
public void Dispose()
{
}
}
My application's models:
public class Item
{
public int MediaId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public int InStock { get; set; }
public decimal Price { get; set; }
public string Manufacturer { get; set; }
}
public class InventoryDbContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<Item> Catalog { get; set; }
}
Currently, nothing I have tried has worked so my home controller's index action just returns the view, and the view currently doesn't accept a model. Can anyone help to explain how I take the returned entities and attach them to a model to send to the view? Thanks in advance! I realize this is a really basic question.
Edit: Here is the Home Controller.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
}

Answer 1

At your most basic level you want something like:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
// Assuming you're not using an IoC container.
AppDataService appDataService = new AppDataService();
Inventory item = appDataService.GetItem("Albatross");
IndexViewModel model =
new IndexViewModel()
{
Name = item.Name
};
return View(model);
}
}
Create yourself a folder called /ViewModels/Home in the root of your MVC project and add a class called IndexViewModel:
public class IndexViewModel
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Then in your view (Index.cshtml):
#model MyNamespaceChangeMe.ViewModels.Home.IndexViewModel
<p>Here's your #Model.Name from the stock room.</p>