Question

I’m new to ASP.NET MVC. I’m currently using ASP.NET MVC 3. I’m trying to create a basic form with an image button that posts data back to the controller. My form looks like the following:

MyView.cshtml

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
  @Html.TextBox("queryTextBox", string.Empty, new { style = "width:150px;" })
  <input type="image" alt="Search" src="/img/search.png" value="Search" name="ExecuteQuery" />
}

MyController.cs

public class MyController: Controller
{
  public ActionResult Index()
  {
    ViewData["CurrentDate"] = DateTime.UtcNow;
    return View();
  }

  [HttpPost]
  public ActionResult ExecuteQuery()
  {
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
      return View();
    }
  }
}

I have verified that I’m accessing my controller code. The way I’ve been able to do this is by successfully printing out the “CurrentDate” associated with the ViewData. However, when I click my image button, I was assuming that my break point in the ExecuteQuery method would fire. It does not. What am I doing wrong? How do I do a simple POST in MVC?

Answer 1

Your form is pointing to the wrong action.

Calling Html.BeginForm() creates a <form> that POSTs to the current action (Index).
You need to pass the action name to BeginForm.