ASP.NET MVC 2: foreach, RenderPartial, ViewModel - asp.net-mvc-2

Question

I'm trying to employ a technique that I came across that seems quite clean.
Previously, my Partial had the loop inside of it. I was looping through the mode within the Partial... but then I came across an example where the foreach loop existed in the main page, while the partial was just the meat of the loop.
They accomplished it like so:
<% int index = 1; // iteration
foreach (var item in Model.Deal) { %>
<% Html.RenderPartial("DealList", item, new ViewDataDictionary {{ "index", index }}); %>
<% i++; // increase the interation
} %>
But in my example, I'm using a ViewModel, and now that I'm in the partial, I can't access "item" like I used to be able to. Instead my only option is Model.Deal ...
What is the point of passsing "item" with the RenderParial helper if I can't access it by saying item.StoreName? Note, both the View and the Partial are strongly typed to the same ViewDataModel.

Answer 1

Inside of the partial "DealList" your model will be whatever item is in the main view. Inside of the partial view, Model.Deal refers to a Deal object inside of item (from the main view).
This means that your StoreName property will be accessible as Model.StoreName within your partial view.
As a side note, I put together an extension method to deal with rendering of multiple partial views so as to not require the looping.
The new method is called RenderPartials:
public static void RenderPartials(this HtmlHelper helper, string partialViewName, IEnumerable models, string htmlFormat)
{
foreach (var view in models.Select(model => helper.Partial(partialViewName,model)))
{
helper.ViewContext.HttpContext.Response.Output.Write(htmlFormat, view.ToHtmlString());
}
}
Using this method you can simple say:
<% Html.RenderPartials("DealList",Model.Deal); %>
inside your main view, without the loop.
There's some more information about this here which explains more about the htmlFormat parameter etc.
Hope this is helpful to you.

Answer 2

#model IEnumerable<dynamic>
#foreach (dynamic m in Model)
{
#Html.Partial(MVC.Lists.Messages.Views._SingleMessage, (object)m)
}