ASP.NET MVC dropdown-list from database

Question

Ok, so I'm new to this whole MVC-world, but it seems to be a pretty good way of getting things done and I'm trying to make it work here.

The problem is: I can't get data from my table in my SQL-database to a simple drop-down form on my registration page.

I have just no idea where to put the stuff, where to code to open the table, select the ids, where to put the response.write and how do I send it to the view?

My Model is this:

    public class users
{
    public string name {get; set;}
    public int user_id {get; set;}
}

My Controller is this:

    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult ListUser()
    {
        return View();
    }

And my View is this:

@model Community.Models.users

I have googled for 2 days now and watched several videos on youtube but of no use, I can't find it. Please, anyone with some knowledge here? And please point me to some good tutorials and/or forums where I can browse for more questions I might have

---

Still no luck on this project..

I'm creating a form and within that form, i want a db-loop (IEnumerable).. But the current model is not a IEnumerable. I'm pretty much stuck, watched a bunch of tutorials and they all just list ONE connection, what if I want two models?

Here is my Controller, I get that you must pass a list to the view, right?

    public ActionResult Registration()
    {
        return View(db.users.ToList());
    }

How do i get hold of that list in my view witout an IEnumerable model?

@neoistheone, your example didnt help me much, my DB opens like this:

private DataBaseContext db = new DataBaseContext();

and i don't know how, but it opens the connection. I've tried for so many hours now, its just silly, haven't slept for soo long!

I'm used to programming ASP-Classic fyi, and this is my first serious try to upgrade my knowledge about programing an up-to-date language and OOP.

Answer 1

Add the SelectList to your model:

public SelectList DropDownList { get; set; }

build the class for that collection:

public class MyListTable
{
    public string Key { get; set; }
    public string Display { get; set; }
}

and then in your controller, load the data for the MyListTable class from the database:

var list = new List<MyListTable>();

using (SqlConnection c = new SqlConnection(cString))
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT KeyField, DisplayField FROM Table", c))
{
    using (SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
    {
        while (rdr.Read())
        {
            list.Add(new MyListTable
            {
                Key = rdr.GetString(0),
                Display = rdr.GetString(1)
            });
        }
    }
}

var model = new users();
model.DropDownList = new SelectList(list, "Key", "Display");

and then finally, you need to send your model to the view:

return View(model);

Now in the Razor you can display this:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => Model.DropDownList);

You of course can name these things better names, but you get the idea.