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How can I generate a PartialView for each click of a button? [duplicate]

The problem I will be describing is very similar to ones I already found (e.g. this post with nearly identical name) but I hope that I can make it into something that is not a duplicate.
I have created a new ASP.NET MVC 5 application in Visual Studio. Then, I defined two model classes:
public class SearchCriterionModel
{
public string Keyword { get; set; }
}
public class SearchResultModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string Surname { get; set; }
}
Then I created the SearchController as follows:
public class SearchController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult DisplaySearchResults()
{
var model = new List<SearchResultModel>
{
new SearchResultModel { Id=1, FirstName="Peter", Surname="Pan" },
new SearchResultModel { Id=2, FirstName="Jane", Surname="Doe" }
};
return PartialView("SearchResults", model);
}
}
as well as views Index.cshtml (strongly typed with SearchCriterionModel as model and template Edit) and SearchResults.cshtml as a partial view with model of type IEnumerable<SearchResultModel> (template List).
This is the Index view:
#model WebApplication1.Models.SearchCriterionModel
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Index";
}
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.AntiForgeryToken()
<div class="form-horizontal">
<h4>SearchCriterionModel</h4>
<hr />
#Html.ValidationSummary(true, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.Keyword, htmlAttributes: new { #class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.Keyword, new { htmlAttributes = new { #class = "form-control" } })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Keyword, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-offset-2 col-md-10">
<input type="button" id="btnDisplaySearchResults" value="Search" onclick="location.href='#Url.Action("DisplaySearchResults", "SearchController")'" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
}
<div>
#Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index")
</div>
<div id="searchResults">
</div>
As you can see, I added a div with id="searchResults" below the standard template and edited the button. What I want is to display the partial view SearchResults.cshtml in the div on the bottom, but only after the button is clicked. I have succeeded in showing a partial view there by using #Html.Partial("SearchResults", ViewBag.MyData), but it is rendered when the parent view is loaded for the first time and I set ViewBag.MyData in the Index() method already, which is not what I want.
Summary: On clicking the button, I will obtain some List of SearchResultModel instances (via database access) and then the partial view should be rendered, using this newly obtained data as model. How can I accomplish this? I already seem fail at the first step, that is reacting to the button click with the above code. Right now, I navigate to the URL ~/Search/DisplaySearchResults, but of course there's nothing there and no code-behind method is called.
In traditional ASP.NET I'd just have added a server-side OnClick handler, set the DataSource for a grid and show the grid. But in MVC I already fail with this simple task...
Update: Changing the button to #Html.ActionLink I can finally enter the controller method. But naturally since it returns the partial view, it's displayed as the whole page content. So the question is: How do I tell the partial view to be rendered inside a specific div on the client side?

Change the button to
<button id="search">Search</button>
and add the following script
var url = '#Url.Action("DisplaySearchResults", "Search")';
$('#search').click(function() {
var keyWord = $('#Keyword').val();
$('#searchResults').load(url, { searchText: keyWord });
})
and modify the controller method to accept the search text
public ActionResult DisplaySearchResults(string searchText)
{
var model = // build list based on parameter searchText
return PartialView("SearchResults", model);
}
The jQuery .load method calls your controller method, passing the value of the search text and updates the contents of the <div> with the partial view.
Side note: The use of a <form> tag and #Html.ValidationSummary() and #Html.ValidationMessageFor() are probably not necessary here. Your never returning the Index view so ValidationSummary makes no sense and I assume you want a null search text to return all results, and in any case you do not have any validation attributes for property Keyword so there is nothing to validate.
Edit
Based on OP's comments that SearchCriterionModel will contain multiple properties with validation attributes, then the approach would be to include a submit button and handle the forms .submit() event
<input type="submit" value="Search" />
var url = '#Url.Action("DisplaySearchResults", "Search")';
$('form').submit(function() {
if (!$(this).valid()) {
return false; // prevent the ajax call if validation errors
}
var form = $(this).serialize();
$('#searchResults').load(url, form);
return false; // prevent the default submit action
})
and the controller method would be
public ActionResult DisplaySearchResults(SearchCriterionModel criteria)
{
var model = // build list based on the properties of criteria
return PartialView("SearchResults", model);
}

So here is the controller code.
public IActionResult AddURLTest()
{
return ViewComponent("AddURL");
}
You can load it using JQuery load method.
$(document).ready (function(){
$("#LoadSignIn").click(function(){
$('#UserControl').load("/Home/AddURLTest");
});
});
source code link

How to get collection of IDs, and Selected Dropdown values passed from View's table to Controller?

So I have a checklist/task manager kind of application that basically pulls a bunch of string values from a database using a model, and then pipes it out to a view which uses a expand/collapse patterned table. The only element that an end user modifiers beyond the expand/collapse state is the dopdown list for the project status.
Rather than an update button for each row, the customer wants basically a single button on the bottom of the page which updates all the rows the user changed. So my goal is to try and create said button. As far as the View code snippet, I've tried messing around with Html.BeginForm, but haven't been able to figure out how to also capture the multiple item IDs as well:
#using (Html.BeginForm("UpdateDB", "Checklist", new { id = model.ID })) // model does not exist in this current context
{
<table id="checklistGrid" class="table table-bordered table-striped grid">
<tr>
<th>#Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ww)</th>
.... // more table headers
</tr>
#foreach (var group in Model.GroupBy(x => x.ww))
{
<tr class="group-header">
<td colspan="12">
<span class="h2">#group.Key</span>
</td>
</tr>
foreach (var dept in group.GroupBy(x => x.dept))
{
<tr class="dept-header">
<td colspan="12">
<span class="h4">#dept.Key</span>
</td>
</tr>
foreach (var item in dept)
{
<tr class="row-header">
<td> #Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.ID)</td>
<td>#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ww)</td>
.... // more table columns
<td>
#{
List<string> ddl = new List<string> { "Done", "Not Done", "N/A" };
SelectList sl = new SelectList(ddl, item.status);
#Html.DropDownList("newStatus", sl); // Added
}
</td>
<td>#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.applied_by)</td>
<td>
#{
DateTime tmp;
//Check if not null, if not null convert to specified time zone
if (DateTime.TryParse(item.timestamp.ToString(), out tmp))
{
tmp = item.timestamp ?? DateTime.MinValue;
string zoneName = "India Standard Time";
var abbrZoneName = TimeZoneNames.TimeZoneNames.GetAbbreviationsForTimeZone(zoneName, "en-US");
TimeZoneInfo zoneInfo = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById(zoneName);
DateTime istTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeFromUtc(tmp, zoneInfo);
#Html.Raw(istTime.ToString() + " (" + abbrZoneName.Generic + ")");
}
else
{
#Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.timestamp);
}
}
</td>
</tr>
}
}
}
</table>
<p><input type="submit" value="Save Changes" /></p>
}
<script type="text/javascript">
// Hide/Show Dept's Data on Click
$(function () {
$('.dept-header').click(function () {
$(this).nextUntil('.dept-header, .group-header').toggle();
});
});
$(function () {
$('.group-header').click(function () {
var elm = $(this);
if (elm.next().is(":visible")) {
elm.nextUntil('.group-header').hide();
} else {
elm.nextUntil('.group-header', '.dept-header').show();
}
});
});
</script>
I suspect the easier (and computationally quicker way) would to be to use Jquery + Ajax && Json attached to a button onclick at the bottom to send the collection of id and selected dropdown text to an ActionResult in the Controller (to then update the database) and then refresh on the success Ajax callback. However my Jquery/Javascript foo is weak and given the clickable 'header' type rows that expand/collapse the data rows, it's not clear to me how I would efficiently use Jquery to navigate and grab the item.IDand the selected dropdown text from each row, bundle it up, and pipe to the desired ActionResult.
So how do I send both the id and selected dropdown text of all the rows to an arbitrary ActionResult be it with Html.BeginForm or Jquery et al?
EDIT: Model for reference:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace TaskTracker.Models
{
[Table("some_update")]
public class TaskInfo
{
public int ID { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "WW")]
public int ww { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "File Name")]
public string filename { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Dept")]
public string hsd_unit { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Owner")]
public string owner { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Manager")]
public string manager { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Project")]
public string project { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Status")]
public string status { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Last Applied By")]
public string applied_by { get; set; }
[Display(Name = "Last Updated Time Stamp")]
public DateTime? timestamp { get; set; }
}
public class TaskInfoDBContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<TaskInfo> TaskInfoSet { get; set; }
}
}

You have a number of problems with you view including your form controls have duplicate name attributes meaning you cannot bind to you model when you submit, duplicate id attributes which is invalid html, and your creating a dropdownist with a name that is not even a property of your model. In addition your use of queries in the view code is not good practice. All of this can be solved by using view models and generating your html correctly using for loops (not foreach loops) or a custom EditorTemplate. However, since you have indicated a preference for ajax, you can post the data by making the following changes to the view
Replace the following HtmlHelper methods
#Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.ID)
#Html.DropDownList("newStatus", sl)
with
#Html.HiddenFor(modelItem => item.ID, new { id = "", #class = "id" })
#Html.DropDownList("Status", sl, new { id = "", #class = "status" })
This will remove the invalid id attributes and add class names for selection. Then replace the submit button with
<button type="button" id="save">Save Changes</button>
And add the following script
var rows = $('.row-header'); // store all the table rows containing the form controls
$('#save').click(function() {
// Build an array of the values to post back
var data = [];
$.each(rows, function() {
data.push({id: $(this).find('.id').val(), status: $(this).find('.status').val() });
});
$.ajax({
url: '#Url.Action("UpdateDB", "Checklist")',
type: "POST",
data: JSON.stringify({ model: data },
traditional: true,
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
success: function(data) {
// do something?
}
})
});
Then create a model to accept the values
public class TaskInfoUpdate
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Status { get; set; }
}
And modify you POST method to
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult UpdateDB(IEnumerable<TaskInfoUpdate> model)
Side note: Its not clear what you mean by "and then refresh on the success Ajax callback" (what is there to refresh?). I suggest that the method return either return Json(true); if the items were successfully saved, or return Json(null); (or a HttpStatusCodeResult) if not so that you can notify the user as appropriate.

HTML form submit a single item from a collection

I have a partial view with a view model that has a collection of sellers. I loop over all of the sellers to render the list. Here is the view model:
public class SellersPartialViewModel
{
public IList<OrderViewModel> Sellers { get; set; }
}
In the partial view I'm using Html.BeginCollectionItem("Sellers") when I loop through the collection and here is my code for the partial (FYI I've stripped away a lot of useless code that doesn't need to be seen):
<div id="sellers-list">
#{
var i = 0;
while (i < Model.Sellers.Count) {
var seller = Model.Sellers[i];
using (Ajax.BeginForm(MVC.Video.PurchaseShares(), purchaseSharesAjaxOptions, new { #class = "seller-form", id = "seller-form-" + i })) {
#using(Html.BeginCollectionItem("Sellers")) {
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => seller.Qty, new { #class = "buyer-qty" })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => seller.Qty)
<input class="buyer-qty-submit" name="Qty" type="hidden" value="" />
<button type="submit">Buy</button>
}
}
}
i++;
}
}
</div>
This works fine for rendering the partial and getting the client-side validation working
however I want each seller to have the inputs named qty and orderId for a controller action called PurchaseShares(int orderId, int qty).
The only problem is the form is being submitted with the odd GUID like Sellers[5b5fd3f2-12e0-4e72-b289-50a69aa06158].seller.Qty which I understand is correct for submitting collections but I don't need to do that.
Right now I have some Javascript that is updating the class="buyer-qty" with whatever they select and it works fine but there has got to be a better way of doing this, no?
Thanks

Why are you using the Html.BeginCollectionItem helper if you don't want to submit collections?
You could have a partial representing your Order collection item (_Order.cshtml):
#model OrderViewModel
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Qty, new { #class = "buyer-qty" })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Qty)
And in your main view simply loop through your collection property and render the partial for each element:
#model SellersPartialViewModel
<div id="sellers-list">
#foreach (var seller in Model.Sellers)
{
using (Ajax.BeginForm(MVC.Video.PurchaseShares(), purchaseSharesAjaxOptions, new { #class = "seller-form" }))
{
#Html.Partial("_Order", seller)
<button type="submit">Buy</button>
}
}
</div>
Now your controller action you are submitting to could directly work with the corresponding view model:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PurchaseShares(OrderViewModel order)
{
...
}
because:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PurchaseShares(int orderId, int qty)
{
...
}
kinda looks uglier to me but it would also work if you prefer it.
Also please notice that I have deliberately removed the Qty hidden field shown in your code as it would conflict with the input element with the same name. Also don't forget to include an input field for the orderId argument that your controller action is expecting or when you submit it could bomb. Also you could send it as part of the routeValues argument of the Ajax.BeginForm helper if you don't want to include it as an input field.

Dynamically adding items into view and posting back to controller (ASP.NET MVC 4)

I have a ASP.NET MVC 4 app with model, that contains and colection (IEnumerable<T> or IList<T>), i.e.:
class MyModel
{
public int Foo { get; set; }
public IList<Item> Bar { get; set; }
}
class Item
{
public string Baz { get; set; }
}
And I render the data in view with classic #for..., #Html.EditorFor... ad so on. Now there's a need to add on client side to add dynamically new items and then post it back to server.
I'm looking for an easy solution to handle the adding (in JavaScript), aka not manually creating all the inputs etc. Probably to get it somehow from editor template view. And to add it the way that when the form is submitted back to server the model binder will be able to properly create the IList<T> collection, aka some smart handling of inputs' names. I read a bunch of articles, but nothing that was easy and worked reliably (without magic strings like collection variable names, AJAX callbacks to server, ...).
So far this looks promising, but I'd like to rather rely on rendering (items known in advance) on server.

I'm not sure what do you mean 'collection variable names' and probably my solution is kind of magic you noticed.
My solution is based on copying existing editor for element and altering input names via Javascript.
First of all, we need to mark up our editor. This is a code of form outputs editor for collection
#for (var i = 0; i < Model.Count; i++)
{
<div class="contact-card">
#Html.LabelFor(c => Model[i].FirstName, "First Name")
#Html.TextBoxFor(c => Model[i].FirstName)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(c => Model[i].LastName, "Last Name")
#Html.TextBoxFor(c => Model[i].LastName)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(c => Model[i].Email, "Email")
#Html.TextBoxFor(c => Model[i].Email)
<br />
#Html.LabelFor(c => Model[i].Phone, "Phone")
#Html.TextBoxFor(c => Model[i].Phone)
<hr />
</div>
}
Our editor is placed into div with class contact-card. On rendering, ASP.NET MVC gives names like [0].FirstName, [0].LastName ... [22].FirstName, [22].LastName to inputs used as property editors. On submitting Model Binder converts this to collection of entities based both on indexes and property names.
Next we create javascript function that copies last editor and increases index in brackets by 1. On submitting it adds additional element to collection:
var lastContent = $("#contact-form .contact-card").last().clone();
$("#contact-form .contact-card").last().after(lastContent);
$("#contact-form .contact-card")
.last()
.find("input")
.each(function () {
var currentName = $(this).attr("name");
var regex = /\[([0-9])\]/;
var newName = currentName.replace(regex, '[' + (parseInt(currentName.match(regex)[1]) + 1) + ']');
$(this).val('');
$(this).attr('name', newName);
});
VOILA!! On submitting we will get one more element!

At the end I did similar stuff what STO was suggesting, but with the custom (non-linear) indices for collections suggested by Phil Haack.
This uses manual naming of elements (so I'm not binding directly to the model) and I can use custom instances (for empty element templates). I've also created some helper methods to generate me the code for the instance, so it's easier to generate code for actual instances from the model or empty ones.

I did this with help of Backbone (for file uploader) where i insert template whenever user click #addButton
View:
#using Telerik.Web.Mvc.UI
#{
ViewBag.Title = "FileUpload";
Layout = "~/Areas/Administration/Views/Shared/_AdminLayout.cshtml";
}
<div id="fileViewContainer" class="span12">
<h2>File upload</h2>
#foreach(var fol in (List<string>)ViewBag.Folders){
<span style="cursor: pointer;" class="uploadPath">#fol</span><br/>
}
#using (Html.BeginForm("FileUpload", "CentralAdmin", new { id = "FileUpload" }, FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
<label for="file1">Path:</label>
<input type="text" style="width:400px;" name="destinacionPath" id="destinacionPath"/><br />
<div id="fileUploadContainer">
<input type="button" class="addButton" id="addUpload" value="Add file"/>
<input type="button" class="removeButton" id="removeUpload" value="Remove file"/>
</div>
<input type="submit" value="Upload" />
}
</div>
<script type="text/template" id="uploadTMP">
<p class="uploadp"><label for="file1">Filename:</label>
<input type="file" name="files" id="files"/></p>
</script>
#{
Html.Telerik().ScriptRegistrar().Scripts(c => c.Add("FileUploadInit.js"));
}
FileUploadInit.js
$(document).ready(function () {
var appInit = new AppInit;
Backbone.history.start();
});
window.FileUploadView = Backbone.View.extend({
initialize: function () {
_.bindAll(this, 'render', 'addUpload', 'removeUpload', 'selectPath');
this.render();
},
render: function () {
var tmp = _.template($("#uploadTMP").html(), {});
$('#fileUploadContainer').prepend(tmp);
return this;
},
events: {
'click .addButton': 'addUpload',
'click .removeButton': 'removeUpload',
'click .uploadPath': 'selectPath'
},
addUpload: function (event) {
this.render();
},
removeUpload: function (event) {
$($('.uploadp')[0]).remove();
},
selectPath: function (event) {
$('#destinacionPath').val($(event.target).html());
}
});
var AppInit = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes: {
"": "defaultRoute"
},
defaultRoute: function (actions) {
var fileView = new FileUploadView({ el: $("#fileViewContainer") });
}
});
In Controller you keep your code
I Hope this will help.

Binding DateTime to knockout view model with default JavaScriptSerializer

I've just started using knockout and I'm running into trouble with DateTime Serialization and Deserialization using the JavaScriptSerializer.
I've updated the gifts model in Steves koListEditor example from his blog to include a Modified DateTime field:
public class GiftModel
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public double Price { get; set; }
public DateTime Modified { get; set; }
}
Then I updated the Index.aspx to include the new field:
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
<h1>Gift list editor</h1>
<p>You have asked for <span data-bind="text: gifts().length"> </span> gift(s)</p>
<form class="giftListEditor">
<table>
<tbody data-bind="template: { name: 'giftRowTemplate', foreach: gifts }"></tbody>
</table>
<button data-bind="click: addGift">Add Gift</button>
<button data-bind="enable: gifts().length > 0" type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
<script type="text/html" id="giftRowTemplate">
<tr>
<td>Gift name: <input class="required" data-bind="value: Title, uniqueName: true"/></td>
<td>Price: \$ <input class="required number" data-bind="value: Price, uniqueName: true"/></td>
<td>Modified: <input class="required date" data-bind="value: Modified, uniqueName: true"/></td>
<td>Delete</td>
</tr>
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var initialData = <%= new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(Model) %>;
var viewModel = {
gifts : ko.observableArray(initialData),
addGift: function () {
this.gifts.push({ Title: "", Price: "", Modified:"" });
},
removeGift: function (gift) {
this.gifts.remove(gift);
},
save: function() {
ko.utils.postJson(location.href, { gifts: this.gifts });
}
};
ko.applyBindings(document.body, viewModel);
$("form").validate({ submitHandler: function() { viewModel.save() } });
</script> </asp:Content>
However when the JavaScriptSerializer serializes the Model
var initialData = <%= new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(Model) %>;
the Modified Date is coming out like this:
Also when using UK Dates I.e. 25/01/2011 the JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize throws the following exception:
25/01/2011 is not a valid value for
DateTime.
Although i'm having 2 problems here the main question is has anyone successfully used knockout from MVC 2 and got the JavaScriptSerializer working with DateTimes? I realise I could write my own JavaScriptSerializer but I was hoping there was a ready made solution out there :)
Here's the code for the updated version of Steve Sanderson's koListEditor:
Code on my skydrive
Thanks
Dave

Well there are two options. You could do the simple fix by having a designated view model object which stores the preformated date time values as a string. This is generally what i do. I can then tryparse for the date value for validation.
The other option would be to implement a custom data binding. You can look at doing that here. This would be the more elegant approach. The nice thing about this apporach, you can then create you UI generation code on binding allowing you to add date picker to the ui in the process.

Not an elegant solution, but it works:
data-bind="value: eval('new ' + Modified.slice(1,-1)), uniqueName: true"
Eval might be a security issue here depending on the context.