c# - ASP.NET MVC - Trouble passing model in Html.ActionLink routeValues

Question

My View looks like this:

<%@ Control Language="C#" 
    Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<TMS.MVC.BusinessSystemsSupport.Models.SearchDataTypeModel>" %>


<table class="classQueryResultsTable">
   <!-- the header -->
  <tr class="headerRow">

      <td>
      <%= Html.ActionLink("Effective Startdate",
                  "SortDetails",
                  "DataQryUpdate",
                  new
                  {
                      model = Model,
                      sortBy = "EffectiveStartDate",
                  },
                  new { @class = "classLinkLogDetails" })%>
      </td>

  </tr>


</table>

My controller action:

    public ActionResult SortDetails(SearchDataTypeModel model, String sortBy)
    {

The model parameter is null. The sortBy parameter is populated. I can pass in a String property from the model to the action with no problem. I want to pass in the entire model though.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

You can't pass complex objects:

new
{
    model = Model,
    sortBy = "EffectiveStartDate",
},

model = Model makes no sense and cannot be sent using GET. You might need to use a form with an editor template and/or hidden fields to send all the model properties. Remember only scalar values can be sent in the query string (key1=value1&key2=value2...). Another alternative that comes to mind is to send only the ID:

new
{
    modelId = Model.Id,
    sortBy = "EffectiveStartDate",
},

and in your controller action fetch the model given this id from your data store:

public ActionResult SortDetails(int modelId, String sortBy)
{
    var model = repository.GetModel(modelId);
    ...
}

Of course this is only true if the user is not supposed to edit the model properties in a form. Depends on your scenario.

And for the sake of completeness let me expose another option: use the Html.Serialize helper from MVC Futures to serialize the entire model into a hidden field which could be passed back to the controller action and deserialized there.