ModelBinding asp.net MVC List - asp.net

Question

I have the following class:
public class Movie
{
string Name get; set;
string Director get; set;
IList<String> Tags get; set;
}
How do I bind the tags properties? to a simple imput text, separated by commas. But only to the controller I'am codding, no for the hole application.
Thanks

Answer 1

You could start with writing a custom model binder:
public class MovieModelBinder : DefaultModelBinder
{
protected override void SetProperty(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor, object value)
{
if (propertyDescriptor.Name == "Tags")
{
var values = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(propertyDescriptor.Name);
if (values != null)
{
value = values.AttemptedValue.Split(',');
}
}
base.SetProperty(controllerContext, bindingContext, propertyDescriptor, value);
}
}
and then applying it to a particular controller action which is supposed to receive the input:
public ActionResult Index([ModelBinder(typeof(MovieModelBinder))] Movie movie)
{
// The movie model will be correctly bound here => do some processing
}
Now when you send the following GET request:
/index?tags=tag1,tag2,tag3&name=somename&director=somedirector
Or POST request with an HTML <form>:
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<div>
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.Name)
#Html.EditorFor(x => x.Name)
</div>
<div>
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.Director)
#Html.EditorFor(x => x.Director)
</div>
<div>
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.Tags)
#Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Tags)
</div>
<input type="submit" value="OK" />
}
The Movie model should be bound correctly in the controller action and only inside this controller action.