Getting CheckList data in MVC6 post - entity-framework

Question

I am doing user roles in MVC6 (using EF7), and I am think I am just missing something, but on a form used to define a user roles I get nothing in the posted back Model to the controller
This is my Model
public class UserRoleItem
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public IdentityUserRole<int> userRole { get; set; }
public bool HasRole { get; set; }
}
public class UsersRolesViewModel
{
public int UserId { get; set; }
public string FullName { get; internal set; }
public List<UserRoleItem> UserRoles;
}
This is the view
#model Skill.ViewModels.Manage.UsersRolesViewModel
<br />
<h3>Set Roles for user - #Model.FullName</h3>
<form asp-action="ChangeUsersRoles" >
<div class="form-horizontal">
<hr />
<input type="hidden" asp-for="UserId" />
#foreach (var userRole in Model.UserRoles)
{
<input type="hidden" asp-for="#userRole.Id" />
<div class="form-group">
<div class="inline-block col-md-8">
<span class="col-md-1" align="center">
<input type="checkbox" asp-for="#userRole.HasRole" />
</span>
<div class="col-md-7">
#userRole.Name (#userRole.Description)
</div>
</div>
</div>
}
<hr />
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-10">
<input type="submit" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
This is the Controller
// GET: Users/ChangeUserRoles/5
public async Task<IActionResult> ChangeUserRoles(int? id)
{
if (id == null)
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
var model = new UsersRolesViewModel();
ApplicationUser appUser = await _context.ApplicationUsers.SingleAsync(m => m.Id == id);
if (appUser == null)
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
else
{
model.UserId = (int)id;
model.FullName = appUser.FullName;
var some = from r in _context.Roles
from ur in _context.UserRoles
.Where(inner => r.Id == inner.RoleId && inner.UserId == id)
.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new UserRoleItem
{
Id = (int)r.Id,
Name = r.Name,
Description = r.NormalizedName,
userRole = ur, // this is needed else it has a hissy fit
HasRole = (ur != null)
};
// get all of the Roles and then also link to the ones the user currently has
model.UserRoles = (some).ToList();
}
return View(model);
}
// POST: Users/ChangeUserRoles/5
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public async Task<IActionResult> ChangeUserRoles([Bind(include:"UserId,UserRoles")]UsersRolesViewModel userModel)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
// update based on the changes
// return RedirectToAction("Edit", new { userModel.UserId });
}
return View(userModel);
}
So when I get the post back on Save, the UserRoles list is null, so I assume I am just missing an obvious thing here?
Also another small issue is the EF Linq statement. If I remove the
userRole = ur,
statement from the Select portion of the Linq query, the system has a fit and says my schema is out of date (which it isn't). I think it is due to the following statement where I am testing the outer join value
HasRole = (ur != null)
Although this seems perfectly reasonable and works if the ur variable is used prior to testing for null (or not)

Answer 1

After entering this question - I further investigated the issue and found that I could do what I needed using an EditorTemplate
So I created the EditorTemplate Folder under my Users View folder as it was a UsersController and then added the following UserRoleItem.cshtml file
#model UserRoleItem
<input type="hidden" asp-for="Id" />
<div class="form-group">
<div class="inline-block col-md-8">
<span class="col-md-1" align="center">
<input type="checkbox" asp-for="HasRole" />
</span>
<div class="col-md-7">
#Model.Name (#Model.Description)
</div>
</div>
</div>
I then changed the view (called ChangeUsersRole.cshtml) to be
#model Skill.ViewModels.Manage.UsersRolesViewModel
<br />
<h3>Set Roles for user - #Model.FullName</h3>
<hr />
<form asp-action="ChangeUsersRoles">
<div class="form-horizontal">
<input type="hidden" asp-for="UserId" />
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.UserRoles)
<hr />
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-10">
<input type="submit" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
Note also: that I tried using the new format
<input asp-for="UserRoles" />
instead of this line in the view
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.UserRoles)
But it did not work as expected. Again maybe I am still doing something wrong - or maybe that feature isn't working yet?