ASP.NET MVC: No parameterless constructor defined for this object

Question

I just had a similar problem. The same exception occurs when a Model has no parameterless constructor.

The call stack was figuring a method responsible for creating a new instance of a model.

System.Web.Mvc.DefaultModelBinder.CreateModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, Type modelType)

---

Here is a sample:

public class MyController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Action(MyModel model)
    {

    }
}

public class MyModel
{
    public MyModel(IHelper helper) // MVC cannot call that
    {
        // ...
    }

    public MyModel() // MVC can call that
    {
    }
}

This can also be caused if your Model is using a SelectList, as this has no parameterless constructor:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public SelectList Contacts { get;set; }
}

You'll need to refactor your model to do it a different way if this is the cause. So using an IEnumerable<Contact> and writing an extension method that creates the drop down list with the different property definitions:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public Contact SelectedContact { get;set; }
    public IEnumerable<Contact> Contacts { get;set; }
}

public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListForContacts(this HtmlHelper helper, IEnumerable<Contact> contacts, string name, Contact selectedContact)
{
    // Create a List<SelectListItem>, populate it, return DropDownList(..)
}

Or you can use the @Mark and @krilovich approach, just need replace SelectList to IEnumerable, it's works with MultiSelectList too.

 public class MyViewModel
    {
        public Contact SelectedContact { get;set; }
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Contacts { get;set; }
    }

You need the action that corresponds to the controller to not have a parameter.

Looks like for the controller / action combination you have:

public ActionResult Action(int parameter)
{

}

but you need

public ActionResult Action()
{

}

Also, check out Phil Haack's Route Debugger to troubleshoot routes.

By default, MVC Controllers require a default constructor with no parameters. The simplest would be to make a default constructor that calls the one with parameters:

public MyController() : this(new Helper()) {
}

public MyController(IHelper helper) {
  this.helper = helper;
}

However, you can override this functionality by rolling your own ControllerFactory. This way you can tell MVC that when you are creating a MyController give it an instance of Helper.

This allows you to use Dependency Injection frameworks with MVC, and really decouple everything. A good example of this is over at the StructureMap website. The whole quickstart is good, and he gets specific to MVC towards the bottom at "Auto Wiring".

This error also occurs when using an IDependencyResolver, such as when using an IoC container, and the dependency resolver returns null. In this case ASP.NET MVC 3 defaults to using the DefaultControllerActivator to create the object. If the object being created does not have a public no-args constructor an exception will then be thrown any time the provided dependency resolver has returned null.

Here's one such stack trace:

[MissingMethodException: No parameterless constructor defined for this object.]
   System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) +0
   System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache) +98
   System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache) +241
   System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) +69
   System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerActivator.Create(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType) +67

[InvalidOperationException: An error occurred when trying to create a controller of type 'My.Namespace.MyController'. Make sure that the controller has a parameterless public constructor.]
   System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerActivator.Create(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType) +182
   System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.GetControllerInstance(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType) +80
   System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.CreateController(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName) +74
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.ProcessRequestInit(HttpContextBase httpContext, IController& controller, IControllerFactory& factory) +232
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass6.<BeginProcessRequest>b__2() +49
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClassb`1.<ProcessInApplicationTrust>b__a() +13
   System.Web.Mvc.SecurityUtil.<GetCallInAppTrustThunk>b__0(Action f) +7
   System.Web.Mvc.SecurityUtil.ProcessInApplicationTrust(Action action) +22
   System.Web.Mvc.SecurityUtil.ProcessInApplicationTrust(Func`1 func) +124
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContextBase httpContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +98
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext httpContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +50
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext context, AsyncCallback cb, Object extraData) +16
   System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +8963444
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +184