MultiSelectFor with MVC EF many-to-many relation

[Erik]

I have an MVC 4, EF 5 model first project with these models:

• Contractor
• Profile

Between these two is a many-to-many relation. (in the background EF generates a ContractorProfiles table and I'm can get a list of profiles for a contractor by calling Contractor.Profiles)
I would like to use the MultiSelectFor to be able to select one or more profiles for my contractor and directly bind it to my viewmodel but I don't know how to do this.
How can this be done?

[Daniel]

Hello Erik,

The MultiSelectFor helper should automatically bind the values based on model collection of objects in the latest release. Which version are you using? If you are using the latest release then could you provide the code that you are currently using and more detailed information about the problem.

Regards,
Daniel
Telerik

[Erik]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, I'm using the latest version. Like I said, I don't know how to do this so I do not have an example.
In the end I just used the MultiSelect and some extra code on the server to get it working. 

@(Html.Kendo().MultiSelect()
      .Name("Contractor.Profile")
      .BindTo(Model.ProfileList)
      .DataValueField("Id")
      .Value(Model.CurrentProfiles)
)

But I would like to see an example of the MultiSelectFor.
So the data from my list is in Model.Profiles and the result from the list should be bound to Contractor.Profiles (this is a collection generated by EF)

[Daniel]

Hello,

You should use a ViewModel for the MultiSelect data. Otherwise, the JavaScriptSerializer will thrown an exception for circular references. I attached a sample project using the MultiSelectFor helper and Entity Framework for the Northwind database.

Regards,
Daniel
Telerik

[Mike]

Can I get a copy of that sample project? 

[Daniel]

Hello Mike,

The project is attached but for some reason it seems that it is not publicly visible. I have reattached it to this post.

Regards,
Daniel
Telerik