Question

In the process of updating a C# MVC 2.0 application!

I have a view “Signup” and another view “ForgotPassword”.

Each view have a with a submit button.

Each form is submitted to the same Controller but to two different ActionResult:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Signup(SignupModel signupModel)
{…}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ForgotPwd(ForgotPasswordModel forgotPasswordModel)
{…}

Upon completion my goal is to redirect the user to a “thankyou” page but based on where the user is coming from (either Signup or ForgotPassword) I wish to display a particular message (or a different UI).

Inside the same Controller, I created a “Thankyou” ActionResult:

public ViewResult Thankyou() 
{
    return View(); 
}

I was thinking of adding a parameter to my Thankyou() method which would allow me to know where the user is coming from (Signup or ForgotPwd). From there, make the “thankyou” page display the appropriate UI/message.

I’m looking for a clean and simple solution.

Should I create two View User Controls and show the appropriate one based on the parameter being passed?

In addition, instead of having an “ActionResult” for my Thankyou() method couldn’t I use a “PartialViewResult” ?

---

EDIT:
I was actually considering something along those lines…

Where ThankyouType is an Enum.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Signup(SignupModel signupModel)
{
    //Validation code...
    return View("Thankyou", ThankyouType.SignupDone);
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ForgotPassword(ForgotPasswordModel forgotPasswordModel)
{
    //Validation code...
    return View("Thankyou", ThankyouType.ForgotPasswordDone);
}

And then have my “Thankyou” ViewResult like this:

public ViewResult Thankyou(ThankyouType type) 
{ 
    return View(type); 
}

Doesn’t seem like I can create a strongly typed view based on Enum (unless I’m wrong).

Perhaps I’ll read more on PartialViewResults and/or find examples…but then again, I could be completely wrong.

Answer 1

I would personally give the ThankYou view a model that has the message you want to display, and have your two controller actions render the ThankYou view directly on success rather than calling a ThankYou action.

However, if you’re sure you want a redirect, you may consider using the TempData collection to store a message or a key of some kind. The ThankYou controller can then retrieve this value and pass it to the View. This situation is what TempData was made for.

Edit

There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to use an enum value as your model type, but if that gives you trouble you should at least be able to create a model type that has an enum property on it.

The strategy of sending the ThankYouType as part of the redirect request would work just fine, if that’s what you prefer. The only potential downside is that it would look like this in the URL:

http://domain.com/controller/ThankYou?type=ForgotPasswordDone

I have no real arguments against it. There are lots of options. Use the one that feels best to you.