MVC Controller to Controller data - asp.net-mvc

Question

Is there a way in MVC to pass information from one controller to another? I have a character model that looks like this:
public class Character
{
[Key]
public string CharacterID { get; set; }
public string UserID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Str { get; set; }
public int Con { get; set; }
public int Dex { get; set; }
public int Int { get; set; }
public int Wis { get; set; }
public int Cha { get; set; }
public int BaseAttack { get; set; }
}
And a separate weapon model like this:
public class Weapons
{
[Key]
public string WeaponID { get; set; }
public string UserID { get; set; }
public string CharacterID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Type { get; set; }
public string Range { get; set; }
public int Damage { get; set; }
public int Crit { get; set; }
public int CritMultiplier { get; set; }
public string Hands { get; set; }
public string Distance { get; set; }
}
To create a weapon, you first need to create a character which assigned an ID, and I want to be able to pass that ID into the create method of my weapon controller. Is there a way to do this? Thanks

Answer 1

You can use TempData for this purpose. TempData stores data only between two requests. When you set the TempData the next request that is initiated can retrieve value from the TempData and it will be erased for any consequent requests.
[HttPost]
public ActionResult CreateCharacter()
{
// creates charaeters here and sets the tempdata
TempData['CharacterId'] = 50;
return RedirectToAction('CreateWeapon');
}
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CreateWeapon()
{
var weaponModel = new WeaponModel() { CharacterId = (int)TempData['CharacterId'] };
return View(weaponModel);
}
and in your view simply have a hidden for the CharacterId, so it will be persisted if you your post fails validation or if you need to re-display the view.
#Html.HiddenFor(e => e.CharacterId);
Again this is just one approach, only if you you don't want to pass the CharacterId in the url.
You can also achive this just by passing it in the url:
[HttPost]
public ActionResult CreateCharacter()
{
// creates charaeters here and sets the tempdata
return RedirectToAction('CreateWeapon', new { characterId = 50 });
}
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CreateWeapon(int characterId)
{
var weaponModel = new WeaponModel() { CharacterId = characterId };
return View(weaponModel);
}

Answer 2

I would be inclined to pass the character id to the create weapon action via routing, either as a route token that forms part of the path or via the query string. Be sure to check that the weapon can logically be associated with the character to whom the id corresponds.
You could also pass the id using TempData or Session, but considering both by default will take up memory on the web server, the simple option is to use the routing. In addition, unless you call TempData.Keep("key") after accessing TempData, the value will be removed from TempData after the first access, potentially causing issues if the user refreshes the browser window.

Answer 3

You could use RedirectToAction(), though as titled this will cause browser redirection.
return RedirectToAction("CreateWeapon", "Weapon", new { id = yourid });
or
#Html.ActionLink("CreateWeapon", "Create", new { id = yourid })
Edit: Your plain object property names and your action method variables need to match, to do this.