Question

I have a view with a couple of partial views that I bind to my model. For some reason, when I post, the model is empty, and I am not sure why.

Below is my ViewModel.

public class IndexViewModel
{
    public bool AdvancedSearchOption { get; set; }
    public bool ForceAdvanced { get; set; }
    public bool ForceSimple { get; set; }
    public string SimpleSearchCriteria { get; set; }
    public string CustomerNumberCriteria { get; set; }
    public string AccountNumberCriteria { get; set; }
    public string NameCriteria { get; set; }
    public string PhoneNumberCriteria { get; set; }
}

Here is my controller. I am filling in all the values of the viewmodel because I wanted to see if the values got to the partial views. They do get there, so it is just on the post that I am having issues.

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private ISecurityRepository SecurityRep;

    public HomeController(ISecurityRepository repo)
    {
        SecurityRep = repo;
    }

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        IndexViewModel temp = new IndexViewModel();
        temp.AdvancedSearchOption = SecurityRep.DefaultToAdvancedSearch(User.Identity.Name);
        temp.ForceAdvanced = false;
        temp.ForceSimple = false;
        temp.SimpleSearchCriteria = "Testing";
        temp.AccountNumberCriteria = "Acct";
        temp.CustomerNumberCriteria = "Cust";
        temp.NameCriteria = "Name";
        temp.PhoneNumberCriteria = "Phone";
        return View(temp);
    }

    public ActionResult SimpleSearch()
    {
        IndexViewModel temp = new IndexViewModel();
        temp.AdvancedSearchOption = SecurityRep.DefaultToAdvancedSearch(User.Identity.Name);
        temp.ForceAdvanced = false;
        temp.ForceSimple = true;
        temp.SimpleSearchCriteria = "Testing";
        temp.AccountNumberCriteria = "Acct";
        temp.CustomerNumberCriteria = "Cust";
        temp.NameCriteria = "Name";
        temp.PhoneNumberCriteria = "Phone";
        return View("Index",temp);
    }

    public ActionResult AdvancedSearch()
    {
        IndexViewModel temp = new IndexViewModel();
        temp.AdvancedSearchOption = SecurityRep.DefaultToAdvancedSearch(User.Identity.Name);
        temp.ForceAdvanced = true;
        temp.ForceSimple = false;
        temp.SimpleSearchCriteria = "Testing";
        temp.AccountNumberCriteria= "Acct";
        temp.CustomerNumberCriteria= "Cust";
        temp.NameCriteria= "Name";
        temp.PhoneNumberCriteria = "Phone";
        return View("Index", temp);
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(IndexViewModel vm, FormCollection formCollection)
    {
        return View();
    }
}

Here is my view

@model TRIOSoftware.Magnum.Models.IndexViewModel

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Search";
}

@if ((@Model.AdvancedSearchOption && @Model.ForceSimple != true) || @Model.ForceAdvanced == true)
{
    @Html.Partial("AdvancedSearch")
}
else
{
    @Html.Partial("SimpleSearch")
}

Here is my SimpleSearch partial view. I think if I can get this one working, the other will follow the same path. I do the post in the partial and I use jQuery to do it. I am not sure if either of these things could cause me issues or not. I only have all the hidden items in there because I didn’t know if not having them was causing my issues.

 @model TRIOSoftware.Magnum.Models.IndexViewModel

 <script type="text/javascript">
     $(document).ready(function () {
         $("#DefaultDiv").find("#DefaultAdvanced").click(function () {
             $.post("DefaultSimple");
         });

         $("#SearchSection").find("#SearchButton").click(function () {
             $.post("");
         });
     });
</script>

 @using (Html.BeginForm("Index","Home"))
 {
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ForceAdvanced)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.AdvancedSearchOption)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ForceSimple)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.AccountNumberCriteria)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.CustomerNumberCriteria)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.NameCriteria)
     @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.PhoneNumberCriteria)

     <div id="DefaultDiv" style="float:right">
         <a id="DefaultAdvanced" href="#" class="ButtonClass">Default Simple Search</a>
     </div>

     <div style="clear:both; margin: auto; width: 800px">
         <img src="../../Content/images/TRIO_transparent_image.gif"; alt="TRIO Software"; style="margin-left:150px; clear:left"/>
             <div style="clear:left; float: left" class="SearchText">
                  @Html.Label("What's your inquiry?:")
                  @Html.EditorFor(m => m.SimpleSearchCriteria, new { style = "width: 400px" })
             </div>
             <div id="SearchSection" style="float: left" class="SearchText">
                 <a href="#"; id="SearchButton" class="ButtonClass"><img src="../../Content/images/Search.gif"; alt="Search"; style="float:left" /></a>
             </div>
             <p style="clear:left;margin-left:400px">
                 @Html.ActionLink("Advanced Search", "AdvancedSearch", null, new { style = "clear:left" })
             </p>

    </div>
 }

Here is the HTML code when viewing the simple search partial view:

<div id="main">
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function () {
            $("#DefaultDiv").find("#DefaultAdvanced").click(function () {
                $.post("DefaultSimple");
            });

            $("#SearchSection").find("#SearchButton").click(function () {
                $.post("");
            });
        });
    </script>

    <form method="post" action="/">
        <input type="hidden" value="False" name="ForceAdvanced" id="ForceAdvanced" data-val-required="The ForceAdvanced field is required." data-val="true">
        <input type="hidden" value="False" name="AdvancedSearchOption" id="AdvancedSearchOption" data-val-required="The AdvancedSearchOption field is required." data-val="true">
        <input type="hidden" value="False" name="ForceSimple" id="ForceSimple" data-val-required="The ForceSimple field is required." data-val="true">
        <input type="hidden" value="Acct" name="AccountNumberCriteria" id="AccountNumberCriteria">
        <input type="hidden" value="Cust" name="CustomerNumberCriteria" id="CustomerNumberCriteria">
        <input type="hidden" value="Name" name="NameCriteria" id="NameCriteria">
        <input type="hidden" value="Phone" name="PhoneNumberCriteria" id="PhoneNumberCriteria">
        <div style="float:right" id="DefaultDiv">
            <a class="ButtonClass ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only" href="#" id="DefaultAdvanced" role="button"><span class="ui-button-text">Default Simple Search</span></a>
        </div>
        <div style="clear:both; margin: auto; width: 800px">
            <img style="margin-left:150px; clear:left" alt="TRIO Software" ;="" src="../../Content/images/TRIO_transparent_image.gif">
            <div class="SearchText" style="clear:left; float: left">
               <label for="What_s_your_inquiry_:">What's your inquiry?:</label>
               <input type="text" value="Testing" name="SimpleSearchCriteria" id="SimpleSearchCriteria" class="text-box single-line">
            </div>
            <div class="SearchText" style="float: left" id="SearchSection">
                <a class="ButtonClass ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only" id="SearchButton" ;="" href="#" role="button"><span class="ui-button-text"><img style="float:left" alt="Search" ;="" src="../../Content/images/Search.gif"></span></a>
            </div>
            <p style="clear:left;margin-left:400px">
                <a style="clear:left" href="/Home/AdvancedSearch">Advanced Search</a>
            </p>
     </div>
    </form>
</div>

How do I fix this problem?

Answer 1

I had tried explicitly sending in the model to the partials with no luck. I believe that the partial views get the parent model by default if nothing is specified, so all I needed to do was to specify the model type in my partials, and I got the information.

I finally figured it out with a lot of trial and error. My issue was being caused by me trying to use jQuery to do a post. There must be some other things you need to do to update your model doing it this way. Once I changed it out and put an input control on the form for the post, I got all my data back from the parent and partial view in the controller.