Question

I’m pretty new to MVC 2 and I’m having problems figuring out how to post values that lies outside the form.

This is my code very simplified:

<input type="text" id="TextboxOutsideForm"/>    
<% using (Html.BeginForm("Edit", "Home", FormMethod.Post)) {%>
    <%: Html.ValidationSummary(true) %>
      <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.Stuff) %>
         <input type="submit" value="Save" />
<% } %>

TextboxOutsideForm can be changed by the user and when pushing save I want to include the value from this control to the action in the controller. It would also be great if i could use model binding at the same time.
This would be great:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Edit(int id, Model model, string valueFromTextbox)

Or just a FormCollection and a value..
I know that in this simplified example i could just put the textbox inside of the form, but in real life the control is 3rd party and is creating loads of of other stuff, so i just need to grab the value with jquery maybe and post it..

Is this possible?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you use a normal form post only inputs inside the form will be sent to the server. To achieve what you are looking for you will need to submit the form using AJAX. Example:

$(function() {
    $('form').submit(function() {
        $.ajax{
            url: this.action,
            type: this.method,
            data: $(this).clone().append($('#TextboxOutsideForm').clone()).serialize(),
            success: function(result) {
                alert('form successfully posted');
            }
        });
        return false;
    });
});

Also don’t forget to give a name to the input field which is outside the form.