Pass a model to a partial view?

Question

this is my partial:

@model RazorSharpBlog.Models.MarkdownTextAreaModel

<div class="wmd-panel">
    <div id="[email protected]"></div>
    @Html.TextAreaFor(m => m.Name, new { @id = "wmd-input-" + @Model.Name, @class = "wmd-input" })
</div>
<div class="wmd-panel-separator"></div>
<div id="[email protected]" class="wmd-panel wmd-preview"></div>

<div class="wmd-panel-separator"></div>

I'm trying to include it like this in my View:

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.LabelFor(m => m.Title)
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Title)

    @Html.Partial("MarkdownTextArea", new { Name = "content" })

    <input type="submit" value="Post" />
}

these are the model classes:

public class MarkdownTextAreaModel
{
    [Required]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class BlogContentModel 
{
    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "Post Title")]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.MultilineText)]
    [Display(Name = "Post Content")]
    public string Content { get; set; }
}

What am I doing wrong, how should I do this in order to make my partial reusable?

Solution

Your partial expects an instance of the MarkdownTextAreaModel class. So do so, instead of passing an anonymous object which would throw anyways:

@Html.Partial("MarkdownTextArea", new MarkdownTextAreaModel { Name = "content" })

Now this being said a far better solution would be to adapt your view model, so that it contains a reference to MarkdownTextAreaModel and use editor templates instead of partials in your views, just like so:

public class BlogContentModel 
{
    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "Post Title")]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.MultilineText)]
    [Display(Name = "Post Content")]
    public string Content { get; set; }

    public MarkdownTextAreaModel MarkDown { get; set; }
}

then of course readapt the controller serving this view so that it populates the MarkDown of your view model:

public ActionResult Foo()
{
    BlogContentModel model = .... fetch this model from somewhere (a repository?)
    model.MarkDown = new MarkdownTextAreaModel
    {
        Name = "contect"
    };
    return View(model);
}

and then inside your main view simply:

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    @Html.LabelFor(m => m.Title)
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Title)

    @Html.EditorFor(x => x.MarkDown)

    <input type="submit" value="Post" />
}

and then in order to follow standard conventions move your partial to ~/Views/YourControllerName/EditorTemplates/MarkdownTextAreaModel.cshtml and now everything will magically come into place as it should.

Comments

[bevacqua]

Yay! I'm learning MVC as I'm coding, so this is great insight, thanks!

[Akbari]

My partial expects a long, how can I pass that? @model long and I'm trying something like @Html.Partial("p", new { m = Model.SWhCode }).