How to access my model from my view? - asp.net-mvc-2

Question

I cannot seem to figure out how to access my Model from my View. I am confused.
Here is my Home controller. I have verified that "specimens" is being populated with data from the database:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
wildtropEntities wildlifeDB = new wildtropEntities();
public ActionResult Index()
{
ViewData["CurrentDate"] = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");
var specimens = from s in wildlifeDB.specimen1
select s;
return View(specimens);
}
}
And here are couple snippets from my View:
<%# Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<% foreach (WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen s in ??????)
{ %>
<div>s.Name</div>
<% } %>
I assumed I would be able to access "specimens" since I passed it to the View from the Controller (ie, return View(specimens))...but it isn't working.

Answer 1

You will have to make your view strongly typed to a collection of specimen which is what you are passing to it from your controller action (IEnumerable<specimen>):
<%# Page
Language="C#"
MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master"
Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<IEnumerable<WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen>>" %>
<% foreach (WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen s Model) { %>
<div><%= Html.Encode(s.Name) %></div>
<% } %>
Notice how the view inherits System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<IEnumerable<WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen>> and it is now strongly typed to a collection of specimens that you will be able to loop through.
This being said, personally I don't like writing foreach loops in my views. They make them look ugly. In this case I would use a display template:
<%# Page
Language="C#"
MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master"
Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<IEnumerable<WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen>>" %>
<%= Html.DisplayForModel() %>
and then I would define a display template which will automatically be rendered for each element of the model collection (~/Views/Shared/DisplayTemplates/specimen.ascx):
<%# Control
Language="C#"
Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen>" %>
<div>
<%= Html.DisplayFor(x => x.Name) %>
</div>
See how the specimen.ascx user control is now strongly typed to System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen>. This is because it will be rendered for each specimen of the main view model.

Answer 2

I am not sure about MVC2. In MVC 3(with Razor View Engine), I can pass the Model / ViewModel to the View like this.
#model MyProject.ViewModel.UserViewModel
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Welcome To My Site";
}
<div class="divSubHead">
<h2>Hello #Model.FirstName</h2></div>

Answer 3

How about this? Note the Inherits for the Page.
<%# Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage(Of IEnumerable(Of Specimen))" %>
<% foreach (WildlifeTropical.Models.specimen s in Model)
{ %>
<div>s.Name</div>
<% } %>