title: MVC editing complex object stored in hidden fields
body: <p>Let's say I have a very huge model that contains lists and even those lists can have objects that contain other lists. I want to create an edit form for that in MVC4 (or 5) without AJAX.</p>
  
  <p>So I figured that the first part of that is to store the entire object on the client side in hidden fields. List binding works like a charm, see <a href="http://haacked.com/archive/2008/10/23/model-binding-to-a-list.aspx/" rel="noreferrer">http://haacked.com/archive/2008/10/23/model-binding-to-a-list.aspx/</a>. Now the complete roundtrip is working, I can push out the entire object to the client in bound hidden fields, it gets back to me upon submit and the posted hidden fields are put into the complex object, nested lists and everything included.</p>
  
  <p>Lists or other objects should become editable based on some action. One scenario is where a single object or list items are displayed as non-editable, and when the user clicks it, it becomes editable in-place, so for example the cells in a grid become textboxes. Another scenario is where a single object or list items are not shown at all, and when the user clicks a button, a popup window appears with the text input fields.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a library or a proven way to do this?</p>