Enumerable objects in ViewBag in MVC4 - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I have the below model say F:
public partial class F
{
[Key, Display(Name = "Id")]
public int FId { get; set; }
public int RId { get; set; }
public int FTId { get; set; }
public string C { get; set; }
public string U { get; set; }
public string D { get; set; }
[ScaffoldColumn(false)]
public System.DateTimeOffset Created { get; set; }
}
In the controller I have to read all the records of 'F' from database and assign those to an enumerable list of records.
For ex:
ViewBag.Cs = enumerable C column items (textbox)
ViewBag.Us= enumerable U column items (textbox)
ViewBag.FTIDs = enumerable FTId column items (this has to be a dropdown)
In my I have to show
#Html.Textbox(Cs);
#Html.Dropdown(FTIDs);
I gave only textbox and dropdows as an example, there could be many other controls like datetimes, checkboxes etc.,
I should be able to written each column as list a in viewbag and show it in MVC View.
Can somebody advise if this achievable and how?
Many thanks...

Answer 1

Don't use a viewbag for something like this - instead strongly bind your view to a model. Only use a view bag if you have something really small to pass.. anything complex you should always use a strongly typed view model, you get intellisence and its must cleaner for unit testing
View Model:
Public class MyViewModel
{
public List<F> MyListOfFObjects { get; set; }
}
Now when you create your view you can bind it to this view model in the popup or if you don't want to recreate it simply add a reference to it at the top of your view like so:
#model <your project>.<folder view model is in>.<view model name>
for example
#model AdventureWorks.Models.EmployeeViewModel.
In your controller you simply create this view model and pass it to your view such as:
public ActionResult Index()
{
MyViewModel vm = new MyViewModel();
// Initialize your view model
// Get all the F objects from the database and populate the list
return View(vm); // now your view will have the view model
}
Now in the view you can iterate through this view model
#foreach(var fObject in Model)
{
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.fId)
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.rID)
}
Here is a link to a list of the different #Html helpers that you can use btw
http://qkview.com/techbrij/aspnet-mvc-4
Reference for strongly binded views:
http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/views/dynamic-v-strongly-typed-views