Question

I’m using a Html.BeginForm but I need a hyperlink to trigger a postback to a ActionResult (similar functionality to a LinkButton). I don’t think that I can use an ActionLink because i’m not routing to a view with the same name as the ActionResult (or have I misunderstood :S).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

I think you have two options (though the first isn’t as flexible and can get messy)

1) style your submit button like a hyperlink (easy, but you’ll probably end up using Html.BeginAjax or something like that)

2) Style a div, ActionLink, or some other element and serialize the form data on posting back using jQuery

If you can better describe the data being returned, we can better customize the dataType and success parameters below.

$(function () {
    $('#myButton').click(function (e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        $.ajax({
            url: '/MyController/MySuperAction',
            type: 'POST',
            data: $('#formId').serialize(),
            dataType: 'json',
            success: function (xhr_data) {
                // in this particular example, you'll
                // parse your JSON returned.
            }
        });
    });
});

Edit

So, you’re controller could look like

public ActionResult MySuperAction(FormCollection form) {
    // I don't recommend using FormCollection
    // You should stick to the view model pattern

    // process your form
    return Json(new { MyValue = "Textbox value" });
}

And you’d need to modify the success function above to something like

success: function(xhr_data) {
    $('#MyTextBoxID').val(xhr_data.MyValue);
}