ActionMethod I just created cannot be found - asp.net-mvc

Question

So I've created a table to hold extra information for all authenticated users. This table also links up to the many others in my db. This table is hooked up to asp.net identity through the user id although there are multiple fields which share the same information as the membership tables (email and username as well). Unfortunately there was a bug that erased some of this membership data from the users table I added and not the identity tables themselves. The bug itself has been since been fixed, however I am trying to create a way to retrieve this lost information from the membership tables. The way I went about doing so was by adding a button to the edit screen of the users (Not the usersadmin page but the users table I added). My code for the button taking me to the action looks like this:
Button to action
The UserReset Action code looks like this:
UserReset Action Code
The trouble I am having currently is actually being able to call to this action (or even open the edit page at this point). Every time I try to load the page it throws a "Public Action Method not found in controller" error. I feel it's a rookie mistake on my end but can anyone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

I'm going to hold my tongue on the backstory and just answer the question:
So, you have two major things I found. The first is the CSHTML (but not the direct cause of your current specific error). See farther below for the CSHTML suggestions (especially if you run into more problems after the C# Action fixes)
First, your controller. If you look at your UserReset action, you'll notice you decorated it with [HttpPost]. As you said, you can't open the edit page. This is because the edit page action doesn't exist (e.g., the [HttpGet] action at the requested Url). This is what you need:
public class TSTUsersController : IController
{
...
//You need this action to process the get request
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult UserReset()
{
return View("UserReset"); //return the edit form html to the user
}
//this method will handle the button click
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult UserReset( String email )
{
if(ModelState.IsValid)
{
//save the information to the database
//direct the user to some sort of confirmation page
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
}
//return the form with the error messages
return View("UserReset", email);
}
...
}
From what I can tell, you are completely misunderstanding HTML form submission.
The <form></form> element has two main parameters you are missing:
<form
method="POST"
action="#Url.Action("UserReset", 'TSTUsers")" //e.g. POST /TSTUsers/UserReset
... >
...
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
Or, using helpers:
#using( Html.BeginForm( "UserReset", "TSTUsers", FormMethod.Post ) )
{
<button>Submit</button>
}
Now, this would post to the specified action. To add parameters, in your case, your using a non-changing parameter (e.g., the user can't enter an email), so you have two options. You can modify your action parameter to instead designate the parameter (please note, that the user would see this Url upon a non-ajax post, if that matters to you), like so:
<form
action="#Url.Action("UserReset", 'TSTUsers", new { email = Model.Email })"
//e.g. POST /TSTUsers/UserReset?email=example#example.com
... >
...
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
Or, using helpers:
#using( Html.BeginForm( "UserReset", "TSTUsers", FormMethod.Post, new { email = Model.Email } ) )
{
<button>Submit</button>
}
Now, if you would prefer to hide the Url parameter from the request (for whatever reason), then you would instead add a input, with the type of hidden:
<form
action="#Url.Action("UserReset", 'TSTUsers")" //e.g. "POST /TSTUsers/UserReset
... >
<input type="hidden" name="email" value="#Model.Email"
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
Or, using helpers:
#using( Html.BeginForm( "UserReset", "TSTUsers", FormMethod.Post ) )
{
#Html.Hidden("email", Model.Email )
<button>Submit</button>
}