Question

I am trying to make a button in html that when it is clicked, it calls a method that is in my controller that will create a pdf.

my controller is DashboardController, my method is called PrintConfirm()

here is my html:

<a onclick="<%:Url.Action("PrintConfirm")/%>fileName" rel="external" target="_blank">
    <button class="ui-icon ui-icon-print" data-role ="button">Print Confirmation</button>
</a>

When I run it, all I get is a printer icon and nothing happens when I click on it

Answer 1

Your gator tag is incorrect, and your onclick should be href. Try this:

<a href='<%=Url.Action("PrintConfirm")%>/filename' rel="external" target="_blank">
    <button class="ui-icon ui-icon-print" data-role ="button">Print Confirmation</button
</a>

In addition, you cannot call a void method from the view. Only actions may be invoked, and actions must have a return type of ActionResult.

Also, if your PrintConfirm action is on different controller than the one which returned the current view, you’ll need to specify that controller’s name as well.

<%=Url.Action("PrintConfirm", "PdfPrinter") /* where the controller is PdfPrinterController */%> 

Edit

If you were just trying to invoke the action asynchronously, you’ll probably want to use jQuery and AJAX. Let me know if you’d like an example.