Why does ASP.NET MVC assumes that view will have matching input and output types? - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

ASP.NET MVC (or rather Html.Helpers and base page implementation) assumes that there will be one type for both rendering and posting (namely Model).
This is a violation of ISP, isn't it?
I am tempted to derive my Edit views (those that have different render-data, and post-data) from a custom EditPageBaseView<TViewModel, TFormData>.
The problem is I want my validation and post work against FormData instance (stored inside ViewModel), but MVC assumes that entire ViewModel will be POSTed back.
Is there an OOB way to facilitate that? (I didn't find one if there is).
Is it a bad idea (in concept) to have separate data types for different operations exposed by a service (a view in this case).

Answer 1

I tend to follow the CQRS model when constructing my view models. All rendering is done with ViewModel classes and all posting back is done with Command classes. Here's a contrived example. Let's say we have a View with a small form for creating users.
The ViewModel and Command classes looks like this:
public abstract class ViewModel {}
public abstract class Command: ViewModel
public class CreateUserViewModel : ViewModel
{
public string Username { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
public string PasswordConfirm { get; set; }
}
public class CreateUserCommand : Command
{
public string Username { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
public string PasswordConfirm { get; set; }
}
The UserController creates a CreateUserViewModel as the model for the Get request and expects a CreateUserCommand for the Post request:
public ActionResult CreateUser()
{
// this should be created by a factory of some sort that is injected in
var model = new CreateUserViewModel();
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult CreateUser(CreateUserCommand command)
{
// validate and then save the user, create new CreateUserViewModel and re-display the view if validation fails
}
Model binding takes care of ensuring that the properties of the Posted CreateUserCommand are populated properly, even though the Get View is bound to a CreateUserViewModel.

Answer 2

They don't have to match, but they do match by default.
If you don't want them to match, you can specify a different model in your Form or ActionLink:
Example of a Mismatch using Razor and C#:
Index.chtml:
#model FirstModel
<div>
#using (Html.BeginForm("Action", "ControllerName", new { ParameterName = new SecondModel { First = "First", Second = "Second" } }, FormMethod.Post)) {
<input type="submit" value="Submit Button" />
}
</div>
The Controller:
public class ControllerName : Controller {
public ActionResult Index() {
return View(new FirstModel());
}
public ActionResult Action(SecondModel ParameterName) {
return View() // Where to now?
}