Question

I know how to respond to a form post in ASP.NET MVC using jQuery, but I’m having trouble with something that is a little bit more simple.

The scenario is that there is a list of items on the screen, like an ordered list.

<ul>
   <li>Item 1</li> // each will corrospond with an id.
   <li>Item 2</li>
   <li>Item 3</li>
</ul>

This is a crude example, of course, but the basic jist is that when the user clicks one, it will perform some server side logic… so in the controller, there is a method such as ..

public bool CheckSomething(int id)
{
 // do some logic to determine if the result should be true
 return true;
}

It’s very simple logic, really – but it still requires database access, so I cannot do it in javascript. I need to have it hit my controller. The problem is that I want the UI to respond to this.

I’m having a difficult time figuring out how to exactly wire this up without using a Form. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Use jquery ajax. This example should get you going.

Server:

public JsonResult CheckSomething(int id)
{
 // do some logic to determine if the result should be true
 return Json(true);
}

Client:

$('li').click(function(){
    $.ajax({
        url: '/[controller name]/checksomething/' + this.id,
        dataType: 'json',
        type: 'POST',
        success: function(result){
            if(result) {} //...
        }
    });
});