Why not use Html.EditorForModel()

Question

Ok I just discovered about the EditorForModel in MVC and I want to know when I should use this instead of an EditorFor on each of my property? And why does when I add a strongly typed view it does not use this and build an EditorFor on every property?

I'm late on this... but thanks for the info!

Answer 1

Since the accepted answer is a link-only answer (and was removed), I thought I'd actually answer the question derived from Brad Wilson's Blog: ASP.NET MVC 2 Templates, Part 1: Introduction.

The model expressions are simple helpers which operate on the current model. The line DisplayForModel() is equivalent to DisplayFor(model => model).

TL;DR the same idea can be assumed for EditorFor(model => model) and EditorForModel(); these helper methods achieve the same thing. EditorForModel() assumes the model expression is the @model that was passed to the view.

Take the following models and view for example:

public class Person {     public string Name {get; set;}     public Address MailingAddress {get; set;} }  public class Address {     public String Street {get; set;}     public String City {get; set;}     public String State {get; set;} } 

Create.cshtml:

@model MyNamespace.Models.Person  /* So, you need an Editor for the Person model? */ @Html.EditorForModel() /*the above is equivalent to @Html.EditorFor(model => model) */  /* you need to specify the Address property that the editor accepts? */ @Html.EditorFor(model => model.MailingAddress) 

Answer 2

You should use it when possible, but sometimes you will need the customizability of individual Html.EditorFor uses.

As for why the built-in templates don't use it, that's mainly because they are silly in general, but also because, if I recall, they need to wrap elements (like table rows etc.) around each Html.EditorFor.