ASP.NET MVC 2 DropDownList not rendering

Question

so I don't understand what I am doing wrong here. I want to populate a DropDownList inside the master page of my ASP.NET MVC 2 app.

Projects.Master

<div id="supaDiv" class="mainNav">
 <% Html.DropDownList("navigationList"); %>
</div>

MasterController.cs

namespace ProjectsPageMVC.Controllers.Abstracts
{
    public abstract class MasterController : Controller
    {
        public MasterController()
        {
          List<SelectListItem> naviList = new List<SelectListItem>();

          naviList.Add(new SelectListItem
          {
           Selected = true,
           Text = "AdvanceWeb",
           Value = "http://4168web/advanceweb/"
          });

          naviList.Add(new SelectListItem
          {
           Selected = false,
           Text = " :: AdvanceWeb Admin",
           Value = "http://4168web/advanceweb/admin/admindefault.aspx"
          });

          ViewData["navigationList"] = naviList;
        }
    }
}

The DropDownList is not even showing up in the DOM and I am at a loss as to what I am doing wrong.

ProjectsController

namespace ProjectsPageMVC.Controllers
{
    public class ProjectsController : MasterController
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View();
        }
    }
}

mxmissile · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-23 17:22:24Z

7

Change

<% Html.DropDownList("navigationList"); %>

to

 <%=Html.DropDownList("navigationList") %>

answered Mar 23, 2010 at 17:22

mxmissile

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4 Comments

Dave Swersky Over a year ago

The equals sign is the difference, though I think you also have to use the overload that includes the SelectList

mxmissile Over a year ago

As long as the data is of type SelectList, you don't need to un-box it, see Dave's answer. Personally I prefer strongly typed data over magic strings.

mxmissile Over a year ago

@Gabe This has bitten me countless times.

Dave Swersky Over a year ago

The equals sign indicates a literal value, the semicolon indicates a method call.

Dave Swersky · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-23 17:22:50Z

2

Change your markup:

<%= Html.DropDownList("navigationList", (SelectList)ViewData["navigationList"]); %>

answered Mar 23, 2010 at 17:22

Dave Swersky

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2 Comments

Tomasz Iniewicz Over a year ago

this throws an error: Unable to cast object of type 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem]' to type 'System.Web.Mvc.SelectList'.

Dave Swersky Over a year ago

Your value in the ViewData should be an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>

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