Don't pass db models directly to your views. You're lucky enough to be using MVC, so encapsulate using view models.
Create a view model class like this:
public class EmployeeAddViewModel
{
public Employee employee { get; set; }
public Dictionary<int, string> staffTypes { get; set; }
// really? a 1-to-many for genders
public Dictionary<int, string> genderTypes { get; set; }
public EmployeeAddViewModel() { }
public EmployeeAddViewModel(int id)
{
employee = someEntityContext.Employees
.Where(e => e.ID == id).SingleOrDefault();
// instantiate your dictionaries
foreach(var staffType in someEntityContext.StaffTypes)
{
staffTypes.Add(staffType.ID, staffType.Type);
}
// repeat similar loop for gender types
}
}
Controller:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Add()
{
return View(new EmployeeAddViewModel());
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Add(EmployeeAddViewModel vm)
{
if(ModelState.IsValid)
{
Employee.Add(vm.Employee);
return View("Index"); // or wherever you go after successful add
}
return View(vm);
}
Then, finally in your view (which you can use Visual Studio to scaffold it first), change the inherited type to ShadowVenue.Models.EmployeeAddViewModel. Also, where the drop down lists go, use:
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.employee.staffTypeID,
new SelectList(model.staffTypes, "ID", "Type"))
and similarly for the gender dropdown
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.employee.genderID,
new SelectList(model.genderTypes, "ID", "Gender"))
Update per comments
For gender, you could also do this if you can be without the genderTypes in the above suggested view model (though, on second thought, maybe I'd generate this server side in the view model as IEnumerable). So, in place of new SelectList... below, you would use your IEnumerable.
@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.employee.genderID,
new SelectList(new SelectList()
{
new { ID = 1, Gender = "Male" },
new { ID = 2, Gender = "Female" }
}, "ID", "Gender"))
Finally, another option is a Lookup table. Basically, you keep key-value pairs associated with a Lookup type. One example of a type may be gender, while another may be State, etc. I like to structure mine like this:
ID | LookupType | LookupKey | LookupValue | LookupDescription | Active
1 | Gender | 1 | Male | male gender | 1
2 | State | 50 | Hawaii | 50th state | 1
3 | Gender | 2 | Female | female gender | 1
4 | State | 49 | Alaska | 49th state | 1
5 | OrderType | 1 | Web | online order | 1
I like to use these tables when a set of data doesn't change very often, but still needs to be enumerated from time to time.
Hope this helps!