I am new in ASP.Net MVC and MVC architecture in general. I'm building a simple application using the Database Code First method.
I have a Recipe Model with a property called cookId which is the id of the user who created the recipe.
Now I want to be able to pass a querystring to my page and get ONLY the recipes where the cookId is the same as the parameter and list i on my View.
How can I achieve this? Where should i put this logic? In my controller or in my view?
Well, asp.net mvc works with routes, or TableRoutes. The default routes is created with this format: {controller}/{action}/{id}.
So, when you get a request on your action, you could retrive this id from id parameter on your Action (at controller) and use this value to hit on your database and get all records you need to show on the View. You could try something liek this:
public ActionResult Recipes(string id)
{
IEnumerable<Recipe> list = _repository.GetRecipeByCookId(id); // this method should return list of Recipes
return View(list); // return your View called "Recipes" passing your list
}
You also could use Request.QueryString["Id"] to get the Id, but it is not a good pratice in asp.net mvc. You can use parameters on your action and use it.
On your View, you could type it with the IEnumerable<Recipe> and show it on a table, something like:
@model IEnumerable<Recipe>
<table>
@foreach(var recipe in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>@recipe.Name</td>
<td>@recipe.CookId</td>
<td>@recipe.OtherProperties</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
To create an link passing this id for the request, you could just use Html.ActionLink, something like on your View:
@Html.ActionLink("Text of You Link", "Action", "Controller", new { id = 5, another = 10 }, new { @class = "css class for you link" });
and asp.net mvc will render an a tag with a apropriated route following routetable setted on global.asax. If you have other parameters to pass in querystring, you also could add it like I did on sample with another parameter.
NEVER put logic in the view. The view should simply display the information provided in the model. Put the logic in the controller.
Controller:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Recipes(int cookId)
{
var recipes = /* get recipes based on cook */;
List<RecipeModel> model = recipes
.Select(r => new RecipeModel
{
Id = r.Id,
CookId = r.CookId,
...
})
.ToList();
return View(model);
}
View:
@model List<RecipeModel>
@foreach (RecipeModel item in Model)
{
<div>
<span>Id:</span>
<span>@item.Id</span>
</div>
}
Controller:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult GetRecipes(int cookId)
{
// model can view a List<Recipe>, logic goes here
var model = SomeQueryThatReturnsRecipesFrom(cookId);
return View(model)
}
View (for example views\yourController\GetRecipes.cshtml), only use this file to show data, its not recommendend to put logic here:
@model List<Namespace.Recipe>
<h2>Recipes</h2>
@foreach(var r in Model)
{
<p>r.Name</p>
}
This will be called with the following querystring:
/Recipes/GetRecipes?cookId=SomeId
You might have a CooksController. That controller would return a list of cooks. That list might include a link for the cook's recipes. Your RecipesController could handle the request for all recipes for a given cookId.
@Html.ActionLink("Recipes", "RecipesByCook", "Recipes", new { cookId = model.cookId }, null};
The above code is used in the view Cooks/Index.shtml. It creates a link that uses the query string to identify the cookId like you want.
The RecipesController would then have a method RecipiesByCook which takes a parameter for the cookId. This method will handle requests for URLs like this, Home/Recipies/RecipeByCook?cookId=4.
Your RecipesController can then return an ActionResult with the correct set of recipes to show. Very simply (as in you may want to add more for the view to show, like information about the cook):
public ActionResult RecipesByCook(int cookId)
{
var recipes = repository.Recipes.Where(r => r.cookId == cookId);
return View(recipes);
}
