Question

In ASP.NET MVC, I have a main standard form that posts to an action, and renders the response in the same view.

The problem is that the response type is coming back as application/x-javascript, and as a result the browser is rendering the HTML as text.

I’ve narrowed the issue down to being caused by the inclusion of some partial views in the master page that render forms that post back to actions returning JavaScriptResult.

When I remove these partial view references, the response type from the main form post response is text/html I want.

Why is the JavaScriptResult action interfering with the main form post. I’m not posting to this action so why would MVC decide to infer that the response content type should be application/x-javascript?

Basic Main Form:

@using (Html.BeginForm("TestSearch", "TestSearch", FormMethod.Post))
{
    ....
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult TestSearch(TestSearchInfo testSearchInfo)
{
    ...

    return View(testSearchInfo);
}

In the Layout page:

@{Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Account/LoginOrRegister.cshtml");}

Which is a form that posts to...

[HttpPost]
public JavaScriptResult Login(LoginInfo loginInfo)
{
}

Update:

The core issue seems to be that when I hit the submit button for the main form, the other form which is MVC ajax enabled is posting back too, as a result, both actions are firing, and the one that returns JavaScriptResult is the one that is firing second. I’m still not sure how to prevent this behaviour…

Update:

See answer below

Answer 1

Answer here, hope it helps others.

I have modified all forms that involve a JavaScript response so that the action that renders the control, traditionally the action with the HttpGet attribute to remove the HttpGet so the action can fire in both GET and POST contexts.

This requires a rename of the action that the form posts to, so there is no ambiguity as to which method should fire.

I guess this makes sense – what I guess I was expecting to see was that the rendering of a partial view where the contained form was not the POST target should use the get overload to render. I understand why that isn’t the way it works though.

// No GET / POST Attribute, this can no fire in both GET and POST contexts
public ActionResult Login()
{
    .. This will now fire for every page load, where as before the HttpGet
       filter only allowed to run in a GET context. 
}

[HttpPost]
public JavaScriptResult DoLogin(LoginInfo loginInfo)
{
}