ViewModel loses data on post

ViewModel loses data on post

I'm trying to create a complex ViewModel that has both an Index Page and
Create Page of Company Notes all within the Details Page of a Company, and
would like some guidance as to whether I'm doing this properly.
My problem at the moment is that when I create a new Company Note, it
doesn't have any information in the object beyond the EditorFor fields I
include in my cshtml - it loses all the data in the ViewModel.
I have a Company model and CompanyController, and in my Details action, I
populate all the notes that are relevant to the company, and a form to
allow users to add a new note.
My Company and CompanyNotes model are very simple:
public class Company
{
public int CompanyID { get; set; }
// bunch of fields related to the company
public virtual ICollection<CompanyNote> CompanyNotes { get; set; }
}
public class CompanyNote
{
public int CompanyNoteID { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public string Note { get; set; }
public Company Company { get; set; }
}
I have a ViewModel that looks like this:
public class CompanyViewModel
{
public Company Company { get; set; }
// List of all notes associated with this company
public IEnumerable<CompanyNote> CompanyNotes { get; set; }
// A CompanyNote object to allow me to create a new note:
public CompanyNote CompanyNote { get; set; }
}
This is my Details action, which populates the company record, gets a list
of related notes, and displays a create form with a new, empty object:
public ActionResult Details(int id = 0)
{
var viewModel = new CompanyViewModel();
viewModel.Company = db.Companies.Find(id);
if (viewModel.Company == null)
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
viewModel.CompanyNotes = (from a in db.CompanyNotes
where a.Company.CompanyID.Equals(id)
select a).OrderBy(x => x.Date);
viewModel.CompanyNote = new CompanyNote
{
Date = System.DateTime.Now,
Company = viewModel.Company
};
return View(viewModel);
}
This is my CreateNote action in my CompanyController. (Should I split this
out into a separate partial view? What would be the benefit?)
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult CreateNote(CompanyViewModel companyViewModel)
{
CompanyNote companyNote = companyViewModel.CompanyNote;
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
db.CompanyNotes.Add(companyNote);
db.SaveChanges();
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
return View(companyViewModel);
}
Finally, here's a simplified version of detail.cshtml:
@model Project.ViewModels.CompanyViewModel
// My company detail display is here, removed for sake of berevity
@using (Html.BeginForm("CreateNote", "Company"))
{
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.CompanyNote.Date)
@Html.TextAreaFor(model => model.CompanyNote.Note})
<input type="submit" value="Create" />
}
When I post, my CreateNote action has a companyViewModel that is basically
empty, with the exception of companyViewModel.CompanyNote.Date and
companyViewModel.CompanyNote.Note, which are the fields in my form - all
the other data in the ViewModel is null, so I'm not sure how to even
include a reference back to the parent company.
Am I even on the right path here?
Thanks, Robbie