c# - How can I reuse a DropDownList in several views with .NET MVC

Question

Several views from my project have the same dropdownlist...

So, in the ViewModel from that view I have :

public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> FooDdl { get; set; }

And in the controller I have :

var MyVM = new MyVM() {
    FooDdl = fooRepository.GetAll().ToSelectList(x => x.Id, x => x.Name)
}

So far so good... But I′m doing the same code in every view/controller that have that ddl...

Is that the best way to do that?

Thanks

Answer 1

I'd say that's fine to be honest, as it's only a repeat of a few lines of code. If it's really bothering you though, you could have all your controllers inherit from a BaseController (if they don't already) and store a method in there to get them all, something like:

public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetFoos()
{
    return fooRepository.GetAll().ToSelectList(x => x.Id, x => x.Name);
}

Then in your controllers you could do:

var MyVM = new MyVM() {
    FooDdl = GetFoos()
}