c# - ASP.NET MVC Model Binding into a List

Question

In my ASP.NET MVC site, part of a feature allows the user to enter the hours when a certain venue is open.

I've decided to store these hours in a VenueHours table in my database, with a FK-to-PK relationship to a Venues table, as well as DayOfWeek, OpeningTime, and ClosingTime parameters.

In my View, I want to allow the user to only input the times they know about; in other words, some days may not be filled in for a Venue. I'm thinking of creating checkboxes that the user can check to enable the OpeningTime and ClosingTime fields for the DayOfWeek that the checkbox belongs to.

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My question relates to how to pass this information to my HttpPost Controller Action.

As I know the maximum amount of Days that can be passed in (7), I could of course just write 7 nullable VenueHour parameters into my Action, but I'm sure there's a better way.

Can I somehow bind the View information into a List that is passed to my Action? This will also help me if I run into a scenario where there is no limit to how much information the user can fill in.

Answer 1

Scott Hanselman posted a very good article about how the default model binder deals with collections, arrays and dictionaries. It's great if you don't want to write a custom model binder, although writing a custom model binder isn't that big a deal.