How do I edit dropdown and date values in EF6 MVC

See more:

DateTime

Razor

DropDownList

MVC5

, +

I have an EF6 MVC application which I intend to do update operations but I am having issues on
1) how to edit Dropdown values
2) how to edit Date values
3)Assign default values for edit properties

I am able to create an AssetRequest entry as below :

[HttpGet]
        public ActionResult Create()
        {
            var model = new AssetRequestViewModel();           
            service.GetEmpStat(model);          
            return View(model);
        }

        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Create(AssetRequestViewModel model)
        {
            if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            {               
                service.GetEmpStat(model);              
            }
                   
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {             
                var model2 = new AssetRequest();
                model.UpdateModel(model2);               
                service.AddAssetRequest(model2 );                          
                return RedirectToAction("Index");               
            }
            return View(model);
        }

from AssetRequest.cs :

public partial class AssetRequest
    {
       ...
       public int AssetRequestId { get; set; }
       public Nullable<int> EmployeeStatusId { get; set; }
       public Nullable<System.DateTime>
       public string SnrMgrSign { get; set; }
       public virtual EmployeeStatus EmployeeStatus { get; set; }
   }

and to ensure dropdowns bind correctly I used a ViewModel https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61882509/how-do-i-bind-a-dropdownlist-using-entity-framework-6-database-first-approach/61949197#61949197:

public class AssetRequestViewModel
    {
        public AssetRequestViewModel(AssetRequest model)
        {          
            EmployeeStatusId = model.EmployeeStatusId;           
            SignatureDate = model.SignatureDate;
            SnrMgrSign = model.SnrMgrSign ;         
        }

        public AssetRequestViewModel()
        {
        }
             
        [DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:dd/MM/yyyy}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
        [DataType(DataType.Date)]
        public DateTime? SignatureDate { get; set; }     
        public int? EmployeeStatusId { get; set; }
        public string SnrMgrSign  { get; set; }    
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> EmployeeStatuses { get; internal set; }
        
        public void UpdateModel(AssetRequest server)
        {                  
            server.EmployeeStatusId = EmployeeStatusId;
            server.SnrMgrSign  = SnrMgrSign;
            server.SignatureDate = SignatureDate;
        }
    }

and in the razor page I have :

@model FBChecklist.ViewModels.AssetRequestViewModel
...
..                                                            
<div class="col-sm-12 control-label no-padding-right" for="form-field-username">
                                                                @Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.EmployeeStatusId, Model.EmployeeStatuses, "", htmlAttributes: new { @class = "form-control" })
                                                                @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.EmployeeStatusId, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
                                                            </div>

                                                            <div class="col-sm-8">
                                                                @Html.EditorFor(m => m.SignatureDate, new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "input-medium date-picker" } })

                                                                @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.SignatureDate, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
                                                            </div>

Now to do Update operations I use the actions below but Im not sure how I can update DropDowns since this method uses the model and not the ViewModel :

public ActionResult Edit(int? id)
       {
           if (id == null)
           {
               return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
           }
           AssetRequest assetRequest = db.AssetRequest.Find(id);
           if (assetRequest == null)
           {
               return HttpNotFound();
           }
           return View(assetRequest);
       }

[HttpPost, ActionName("Edit")]
     [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
     public ActionResult EditAssetRequest(int? id)
     {
         if (id == null)
         {
             return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
         }
         var requestToUpdate = db.AssetRequest.Find(id);
         if (TryUpdateModel(requestToUpdate, "",
             new string[] { "SignatureDate", "EmployeeStatusId", "SnrMgrSign"}))
         {
             try
             {
                 db.SaveChanges();
                 return RedirectToAction("Index");
             }
             catch (RetryLimitExceededException /* dex */)
             {
                 ModelState.AddModelError("", "Unable to save changes. Try again, and if the problem persists, see your system administrator.");
             }
         }
         return View(requestToUpdate);
     }

How can I edit these values ?

What I have tried:

I have tried to add SelectListItem variables to the Model itself but I'm getting a lot of errors and this also appears to be unnecessary duplication of code - They should be a way of updating these values .. even when using ViewModels