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I have developed a system whereby I use an attribute to state which SelectList to use for an 'FK' property. I would appreciate some feedback mainly on by good practice, and also on any ways to do this better. Let me start my exposition with a demo view model:

public class DemoModel
{
    [DropDownList("LanguageSelect")]
    public int? LanguageId { get; set; }
    public SelectList LanguageSelect { get; set; }
}

Now when I use the Razor markup @EditorFor(m => m.LanguageId), I get a drop-down populated from the LanguageSelect list. I get this because the DropDownListAttrbute class attaches the select list name to the LanguageId model:

public class DropDownListAttribute : UIHintAttribute, IMetadataAware
{
    public DropDownListAttribute(string selectListName) : base(KnownUiHints.DropDown, KnownPresentationLayers.Mvc, selectListName)
    {
        SelectListName = selectListName;
    }
    public string SelectListName { get; set; }
    public void OnMetadataCreated(ModelMetadata metadata)
    {
        var listProp = metadata.ContainerType.GetProperty(SelectListName);
        metadata.AdditionalValues[KnowMetadataKeys.SelectListName] = SelectListName;
    }
}

All my view models derive from ViewModel, which offers a SelectListDictionary property:

private IDictionary<string, SelectList> _selectListdictionary;
public virtual IDictionary<string, SelectList> SelectListDictionary
{
    get
    {
        if (_selectListdictionary == null)
        {
            var props = GetType().GetProperties().Where(p => p.PropertyType == typeof(SelectList));
            _selectListdictionary = props.ToDictionary(prop => prop.Name, prop => (SelectList)prop.GetValue(this, null));
        }
        return _selectListdictionary;
    }
}

In my base controller, I override the View method to pull the entire select list dictionary from the view model, and insert it into the view's viewdata, making it available for the editor template:

protected override ViewResult View(string viewName, string masterName, object model)
{
    var result = base.View(viewName, masterName, model);
    if ((model is ViewModel) && (!ViewData.ContainsKey(KnowMetadataKeys.ViewDataSelectLists)))
    {
        var vm = (ViewModel)model;
        result.ViewData.Add(KnowMetadataKeys.ViewDataSelectLists, vm.SelectListDictionary);
    }
    return result;
}

The editor template then retrieves the list it requires from the select list dictionary and builds a select input element:

@using Erisia.Constants
@{
    var list = (SelectList)ViewData.ModelMetadata.AdditionalValues[ViewData.ModelMetadata.AdditionalValues[KnowMetadataKeys.SelectListName].ToString()];
    var listWithSelected = new SelectList(list.Items, list.DataValueField, list.DataTextField, Model);
}
@Html.DropDownListFor(m => Model, listWithSelected, " - select - ")

So what say you all?

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