Is there some easy way to handle multiple submit buttons from the same form? For example:
<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" value="Send" />
<input type="submit" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
Any idea how to do this in ASP.NET Framework Beta? All examples I've googled for have single buttons in them.
Give your submit buttons a name, and then inspect the submitted value in your controller method:
<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="Send" />
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
posting to
public class MyController : Controller {
public ActionResult MyAction(string submitButton) {
switch(submitButton) {
case "Send":
// delegate sending to another controller action
return(Send());
case "Cancel":
// call another action to perform the cancellation
return(Cancel());
default:
// If they've submitted the form without a submitButton,
// just return the view again.
return(View());
}
}
private ActionResult Cancel() {
// process the cancellation request here.
return(View("Cancelled"));
}
private ActionResult Send() {
// perform the actual send operation here.
return(View("SendConfirmed"));
}
}
EDIT:
To extend this approach to work with localized sites, isolate your messages somewhere else (e.g. compiling a resource file to a strongly-typed resource class)
Then modify the code so it works like:
<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="<%= Html.Encode(Resources.Messages.Send)%>" />
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="<%=Html.Encode(Resources.Messages.Cancel)%>" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
and your controller should look like this:
// Note that the localized resources aren't constants, so
// we can't use a switch statement.
if (submitButton == Resources.MessageYou can check the name in the action as has been mentioned, but you might consider whether or not this is good design. It is a good idea to consider the responsibility of the action and not couple this design too much to UI aspects like button names. So consider using 2 forms and 2 actions:
<% Html.BeginForm("Send", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Send" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
<% Html.BeginForm("Cancel", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
Also, in the case of "Cancel", you are usually just not processing the form and are going to a new URL. In this case you do not need to submit the form at all and just need a link:
<%=Html.ActionLink("Cancel", "List", "MyController") %>
You should be able to name the buttons and give them a value; then map this name as an argument to the action. Alternatively, use 2 separate action-links or 2 forms.
//model
public class input_element
{
public string Btn { get; set; }
}
//views--submit btn can be input type also...
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<button type="submit" name="btn" value="verify">
Verify data</button>
<button type="submit" name="btn" value="save">
Save data</button>
<button type="submit" name="btn" value="redirect">
Redirect</button>
}
//controller
public ActionResult About()
{
ViewBag.Message = "Your app description page.";
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult About(input_element model)
{
if (model.Btn == "verify")
{
// the Verify button was clicked
}
else if (model.Btn == "save")
{
// the Save button was clicked
}
else if (model.Btn == "redirect")
{
// the Redirect button was clicked
}
return View();
}