Calling UpdateModel with a collection of complex data types reset all non-bound values?

Question

I'm not sure if this is a bug in the DefaultModelBinder class or what. But UpdateModel usually doesn't change any values of the model except the ones it found a match for. Take a look at the following:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ViewResult Edit(List<int> Ids)
{
    // Load list of persons from the database
    List<Person> people = GetFromDatabase(Ids);
    // shouldn't this update only the Name & Age properties of each Person object
    // in the collection and leave the rest of the properties (e.g. Id, Address)
    // with their original value (whatever they were when retrieved from the db)
    UpdateModel(people, "myPersonPrefix", new string[] { "Name", "Age" });
    // ...
}

What happens is UpdateModel creates new Person objects, assign their Name & Age properties from the ValueProvider and put them in the argument List<>, which makes the rest of the properties set to their default initial value (e.g. Id = 0) so what is going on here?

Answer 1

UPDATE: I stepped through mvc source code (particularly DefaultModelBinder class) and here is what I found:

The class determines we are trying to bind a collection so it calls the method: UpdateCollection(...) which creates an inner ModelBindingContext that has a null Model property. Afterwards, that context is sent to the method BindComplexModel(...) which checks the Model property for null and creates a new instance of the model type if that is the case.

That's what causes the values to be reset.

And so, only the values that are coming through the form/query string/route data are populated, the rest remains in its initialized state.

I was able to make very few changes to UpdateCollection(...) to fix this problem.

Here is the method with my changes:

internal object UpdateCollection(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, Type elementType) {
IModelBinder elementBinder = Binders.GetBinder(elementType);

// build up a list of items from the request
List<object> modelList = new List<object>();
for (int currentIndex = 0; ; currentIndex++) {
    string subIndexKey = CreateSubIndexName(bindingContext.ModelName, currentIndex);
    if (!DictionaryHelpers.DoesAnyKeyHavePrefix(bindingContext.ValueProvider, subIndexKey)) {
        // we ran out of elements to pull
        break;
    }
    // **********************************************************
    // The DefaultModelBinder shouldn't always create a new
    // instance of elementType in the collection we are updating here.
    // If an instance already exists, then we should update it, not create a new one.
    // **********************************************************
    IList containerModel = bindingContext.Model as IList;
    object elementModel = null;
    if (containerModel != null && currentIndex < containerModel.Count)
    {
        elementModel = containerModel[currentIndex];
    }
     //*****************************************************
    ModelBindingContext innerContext = new ModelBindingContext() {
        Model = elementModel, // assign the Model property
        ModelName = subIndexKey,
        ModelState = bindingContext.ModelState,
        ModelType = elementType,
        PropertyFilter = bindingContext.PropertyFilter,
        ValueProvider = bindingContext.ValueProvider
    };
    object thisElement = elementBinder.BindModel(controllerContext, innerContext);

    // we need to merge model errors up
    VerifyValueUsability(controllerContext, bindingContext.ModelState, subIndexKey, elementType, thisElement);
    modelList.Add(thisElement);
}

// if there weren't any elements at all in the request, just return
if (modelList.Count == 0) {
    return null;
}

// replace the original collection
object collection = bindingContext.Model;
CollectionHelpers.ReplaceCollection(elementType, collection, modelList);
return collection;

}

Answer 2

Rudi Breedenraed just wrote an excellent post describing this problem and a very helpful solution. He overrides the DefaultModelBinder and then when it comes across a collection to update, it actually updates the item instead of creating it new like the default MVC behavior. With this, UpdateModel() and TryUpdateModel() behavior is consistent with both the root model and any collections.