Question

1. I want to send a message to userID=3 by going to /MyController/Message/3
2. This executes Message() [get] action, I enter some text in the text area and click on Save to post the form
3. Message() [post] action saves the changes, resets the value of SomeText to empty string and returns to the view.

At this point I expect the text area to be empty because I have set ViewData["SomeText"] to string.Empty.

Why is text area value not updated to empty string after post action?

Here are the actions:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]
public ActionResult Message(int ID)
{
  ViewData["ID"] = ID;
  return View();
}

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Message(int ID, string SomeText)
{
  // save Text to database
  SaveToDB(ID, SomeText);

  // set the value of SomeText to empty and return to view
  ViewData["SomeText"] = string.Empty;
  return View();
}

And the corresponding view:

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master"
    Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<% using (Html.BeginForm()) 
   { %>
      <%= Html.Hidden("ID", ViewData["ID"])%>
      <label for="SomeText">SomeText:</label>
      <%= Html.TextArea("SomeText", ViewData["SomeText"]) %>
      <input type="submit" value="Save" />
<% } %>
</asp:Content>

Answer 1

The problem is the HtmlHelper is retrieving the ModelState value, which is filled with the posted data. Rather than hacking round this by resetting the ModelState, why not redirect back to the [get] action. The [post] action could also set a temporary status message like this:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Message(int ID, string SomeText)
{
  // save Text to database
  SaveToDB(ID, SomeText);

  TempData["message"] = "Message sent";
  return RedirectToAction("Message");
}

This seems to me like more correct behaviour.