MVC - Passing multiple data tables to a view

Question

I currently have the following code in the HomeController of my MVC project:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        MyDataContext dc = new MyDataContext();

        IQueryable<Table1Data> j =
            from n in dc.Table1                     
            select n;

        return View(j);
    }

So that works okay, but now I want to pass a second table through to the same view. So I was thinking I should be able to do something like this:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        MyDataContext dc = new MyDataContext();

        IQueryable<Table1Data> j =
            from n in dc.Table1                     
            select n;

        IQueryable<Table2Data> l =
            from k in dc.Table2        
            select k;

        return View(j, l);
    }

Is there a way to have the view accept two models like this or, alternatively, a way to merge the two result sets (the two tables are not linked in any way?

Answer 1

Yes there is, but not quite like that. The way to do what you wish to do is to create a custom ViewModel class. This class (MyPageViewModel) would have two (or more) properties, one for each of your objects. In your view, you would access them using Model.Table1Data and Model.Table2Data.

A custom ViewModel class is very simple:

public class MyPageViewModel
{
   public IQueryable<Table1Data> Table1Data { get; set; }
   public IQueryable<Table2Data> Table2Data { get; set; }
}

You view would need to be strongly typed to this custom ViewModel class.

<%@ Page Title="MyPage" MasterPageFile="~/Application/Master Pages/Site.Master"
    Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage(Of MyAppNamespace.MyPageViewModel)" %>

Don't try to type that youself; easier to create a new view and check "strongly typed" view, and specify your New Custom Viewmodel class.

Then your action Controller method would be:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
  public ActionResult Index()
  {
    MyDataContext dc = new MyDataContext();

    MyPageViewModel vm = new MyPageViewModel();

    vm.Table1Data =  from n in dc.Table1                     
                     select n;

    vm.Table1Data = from k in dc.Table2        
                    select k;

    return View(vm);
  }
}

Answer 2

Yes - create a new class - which you will use as your model - that contains both tables:

public class MyModel {
   public IQueryable<Table1Data> Table1Data { get; set; }
   public IQueryable<Table2Data> Table2Data { get; set; }
}

Then, in your controller, initialize this class and populate both properties and send it to your view. Then, modify the view to recognize this new type as the view model.