POSTing data in ASP.NET MVC 4 - asp.net-mvc

Question

I'm currently working on an ASP.NET MVC 4 app. I'm pretty new to ASP.NET MVC. Right now, I have a form coded up like this:
<form role="form" method="post" action="/contact/new">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-xs-12">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="name">Name</label>
<div id="name">
<input class="form-control" type="text" autocomplete="off" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="gender">Gender</label>
<select id="gender" class="form-control">
<option value="m">Male</option>
<option value="f">Female</option>
</select>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="email">Email Address</label>
<input class="form-control" type="email" autocomplete="off" />
</div>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
</form>
My controller and action look like the following:
public class ContactController : Controller
{
public ActionResult New()
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult New()
{
return View();
}
}
My challenge is, I do not know what to put for the parameters of the HttpPost action in the controller. What should I put here?
Thanks!

Answer 1

MVC is based on Model View Controller. you should have a model for the View and your view should be strongly typed to its model.
If you don't want strongly typed view with some Model class, you have to read the form data from Request:
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult New(FormCollection form)
{
string Name = form["UserName"].ToString();
return View();
}
and add name attribute to your input elements:
<input class="form-control" type="text" name="UserName" autocomplete="off" />
you should see these few links for making understanding of strongly type view and form post:
Dyanmic VS Strong Typed Views
What is strongly typed View in asp.net mvc
Why we need Strongly typed View

Answer 2

First, you need to ensure that the /name/ attributes on your form controls are filled out.
Then, you should define a ViewModel class called NewContactViewModel and your ActionResult as such:
public class NewContactViewModel
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string gender { get; set; }
public string email { get; set; }
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult New(NewContactViewModel model)
{
}