Question

I am beginning to use ASP.NET MVC and i have a navigation which is build with javascript and css. The Navigation is collapsable, so that the menu only takes like 1cm when its collapsed.
My problem is that i need to change the state (collapsed/expanded) by clicking on a button and setting a css class on the menu.
But when i click on a menu-entry the page gets reloaded and so the css-class gets lost too.

How can i persist such data correctly? In normal views i could pass it to my viewmodel, but how can i do this in my _layout.cshtml? (i cant set a model there, right?)

What i tried was using the jquery plugin “cookies” but it only works sometimes (i think the problem is somewhere within the options of the plugin – maybe i have to set a domain or something…). Furthermore it would be nice if the solution wouldnt require the user to allow cookies.

Im glad for any help!

edit:
ok, what i tried now is:

//the view

@model NHibernateSimpleDemoMVC.Models.MenuModel
....
<a id="togglemenu" />

@Html.HiddenFor(x => x.IsCollapsed, new { @id = "collapsedHdn" })

...

<script>
jQuery('#togglemenu').click(
    function () {
        if (jQuery("#collapsedHdn").val() == "true") {
            jQuery("#collapsedHdn").val("false")
        } else {
            jQuery("#collapsedHdn").val("true")
        }
    });

jQuery('#nav > li').click(
    function () {
        var name = jQuery(this).attr("id");
        jQuery("#selectedHdn").val(name);
    }
    );


jQuery(document).ready(function () {
    //set selected node
    if (jQuery("#collapsedHdn").val() == "true") {
       ... collapse ...
    }
     if (jQuery("#selectedHdn").val() != "") { //this is always empty ("")
        var name = "#" + jQuery("#selectedHdn").val();
        jQuery(name).addClass("current");
    }
});

</script>

//the model

public class MenuModel
{
    public bool IsCollapsed { get; set; }
    public string SelectedEntry { get; set; }

    public MenuModel(){
        IsCollapsed = false;
        SelectedEntry = "";
    }
}

… my hidden fields seem to not keep their value after the postback…

Answer 1

There’s a useful related question: ASP.NET MVC Razor pass model to layout