MVC3 Customizing DropdownList items in strongly typed view

I have an auto generated DropDownList from Entity Framework in a strongly typed view:

 <div class="editor-field">
    @Html.DropDownList("User_FK", String.Empty)
    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.User_FK)
</div>

Here is the action code:

public ActionResult Create()
{
    ViewBag.SystemMaster_FK = new SelectList(db.SystemMasters, "System_PK", "Name");
    ViewBag.User_FK = new SelectList(db.Users, "User_PK", "NetworkLogin");
    return View();
} 

I ne开发者_JAVA技巧ed this list to display the names of people loaded from Active Directory. How do I customize the select list options seperately?

@Html.DropDownList has another overload, namely:

public static MvcHtmlString DropDownList(
    this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
    string name,
    IEnumerable<SelectListItem> selectList
)

So, you specify a name string and then an IEnumerable<SelectListItem> generated any way you want.

So, (of course, I'm assuming some types here--MyUserType, MyActiveDirectoryRepository)

List<MyUserType> users = new List<MyUserType>();

foreach(var user in MyActiveDirectoryRepository.GetUsers())
{
    users.Add(new MyUserType()
    {
        ADName = user.Username,
        ID = user.ID // or SAM token, or something similar
    });
}

Pass the list to your view via View Model pattern ViewBag

public ActionResult Create()
{
    // populate list as above
    ViewBag.User_FK = new SelectList(users, "ID", "ADName");
    return View();
}

Then, after passing it to your view (preferably, via view model not ViewBag)

@Html.DropDownList("NameOfDropDown", ViewBag.User_FK)