Stronglytyped html helper with different model for get and post

Question

If a Get Action returns a View with a "Car" model. The view displays info from the object and takes input to post within a form to another action that takes an object of type "Payment"

The Model on the view is of type Car and gives me stronglytyped html support and some other features like displaytext. But for posting I there is no Htmlhelper support like TextBox(x => x.amount I need to make it like @Html.TextBox("Amount"... Its possible, but is this the only option?

Answer 1

You can do this:

@{
var paymentHtml = Html.HtmlHelperFor<Payment>();
}

@paymentHtml.EditorFor(p => p.Amount)

with this extension method:

public static class HtmlHelperFactoryExtensions {

   public static HtmlHelper<TModel> HtmlHelperFor<TModel>(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper) {
      return HtmlHelperFor(htmlHelper, default(TModel));
   }

   public static HtmlHelper<TModel> HtmlHelperFor<TModel>(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, TModel model) {
      return HtmlHelperFor(htmlHelper, model, null);
   }

   public static HtmlHelper<TModel> HtmlHelperFor<TModel>(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, TModel model, string htmlFieldPrefix) {

      var viewDataContainer = CreateViewDataContainer(htmlHelper.ViewData, model);

      TemplateInfo templateInfo = viewDataContainer.ViewData.TemplateInfo;

      if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(htmlFieldPrefix))
         templateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix = templateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(htmlFieldPrefix);

      ViewContext viewContext = htmlHelper.ViewContext;
      ViewContext newViewContext = new ViewContext(viewContext.Controller.ControllerContext, viewContext.View, viewDataContainer.ViewData, viewContext.TempData, viewContext.Writer);

      return new HtmlHelper<TModel>(newViewContext, viewDataContainer, htmlHelper.RouteCollection);
   }

   static IViewDataContainer CreateViewDataContainer(ViewDataDictionary viewData, object model) {

      var newViewData = new ViewDataDictionary(viewData) {
         Model = model
      };

      newViewData.TemplateInfo = new TemplateInfo { 
         HtmlFieldPrefix = newViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix 
      };

      return new ViewDataContainer {
         ViewData = newViewData
      };
   }

   class ViewDataContainer : IViewDataContainer {

      public ViewDataDictionary ViewData { get; set; }
   }
}