Question

I am trying to create a search box to look for invoices in database. The code for search box is as below:

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("Search", "Invoice", new AjaxOptions() { HttpMethod = "POST" })) 

{

    <% input id="search-field" name="search" type="text" value="" %/>

    <% input id="search-submit" name="search-submit" type="submit" value=""   %/>

}

public ActionResult Search(FormCollection collection)
{

        if (collection["search-field"] == null)
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        else
        {
            string id = collection["search-field"].ToString();
            return RedirectToAction("Details", "Invoice", id.Trim());
        }
}

Now the problem is that I receive only null values the controller search action.

I am using MVC3 and .NET framework 4.0

I still can not receive the string value while catching the string in next action:

public ActionResult Details(string id)
{

  if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(id))

  return RedirectToAction("Index"); ==============> Here

  ObjectParameter[] parameters = new ObjectParameter[3];

  parameters[0]= new ObjectParameter("CUSTNMBR", id);
  parameters[1] = new ObjectParameter("StartDate", System.DateTime.Now.Date.AddDays(-90));
  parameters[2] = new ObjectParameter("EndDate", System.DateTime.Now.Date);

  return View(_db.ExecuteFunction<Models.Invoices>("uspGetCustomerInvoices", parameters).ToList<Models.Invoices>());

}

Answer 1

The main issue is that you are searching the FormCollection based on the id of the input elements instead of their name attribute. Try writing your code like this:

View:

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("Search", "Invoice", new AjaxOptions() { HttpMethod = "POST" })) 

{

    <input id="search-field" name="search" type="text" value="" />

    <input id="search-submit" name="search-submit" type="submit" />

}

Action:

public ActionResult Search(string search)
{    
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(search))
        return RedirectToAction("Index");
    return RedirectToAction("Details", "Invoice", search.Trim());
}

I modified your action so you no longer need to query the FormCollection