Question

I have a number of cascading drop down boxes that allow users to filter data before it is shown to them. I have done this using JQuery and returning a lists with JsonResults. But on the final drop down box change I would like to retrieve the data that matches the filters they have applied and display this in a table.

To render the table I would like to use the Model and the htmlhelpers built into MVC. I am unsure of how (or if it is possible) to get this data into the model without making it post back the page (and losing the data from the cascading drop downs). What I would like is to somehow update the model from Jquery, which will allow me to send the data back as a Jsonresult the dynamically create the table.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Answer 1

In addition to getting results back via JSON, you can also return partial views from your controller:

  $('#lastDDL').change(function () {
     var ddlX= $('#ddlX').val();
     var ddlY= $('#ddlY').val();
     ...etc
     $('#results').load('/Controller/FinalResults/' + '?ddlX=' + ddlX + ... etc ...;
  });

There are ways to create a JSON object to pass back to your controller, but this should be enough to get you started.

In your controller:

  public ActionResult FinalResults(int ddlX, int ddlY, etc)
  {
     var myModel = new myModel(ddlX, ddlY, etc);
     return PartialView("finalResults",myModel);
  }