how to test form submission in mvc - asp.net-mvc

I'm sending some param via form post from my template and the action in my controller is handling it accordingly.
Now I want to write a test case for that action. How should I make that dummy request so that Request.Form["selectedSuppliersHidden"] will work in controller action?

You shouldn't really need to use Request.Form in MVC
Give this a read: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/12/09/asp-net-mvc-framework-part-4-handling-form-edit-and-post-scenarios.aspx
If you handle posting correctly then you'll have an Action that can accept variables and be tested a lot easier.
EDIT
You can use the FormCollection param in your Action, something like this
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(string btnSubmit, FormCollection collection)
{
//btnSubmit this is the button that is clicked.
return View();
}
The FormCollection will have everything in it from the Request.Form collection. But you should still be able to post the right hand listbox in the normal MVC way

Related

Working with tempdata in mvc

As I have read that once you set a tempdata, it will last till next request and if you need to use it more then we need to use keep. But in this situation there is somewhere my tempdata is being lost.
The scenario is below:
I have a view and corresponding to that I have a action method in my controller and here I just set a tempdata as below:
Controller class:
public actionresult myview()
{
tempdata["Empid"]= sourceid;
}
The view consists of several renderAction as below and all these actionmethods in controller return some partialviews
#html.renderAction("details","mycontroller")
#html.renderAction("details","mycontroller")
#html.renderAction("details","mycontroller")
#html.renderAction("details","mycontroller")
Now in partialviews, I have several ajaxified calls suppose in one of the partialview , I have a post method using ajax like below:
$.post("action", "controller",{}});
Please ignore syntactical mistakes as I only have problem in understating the logic of tempdata.
So, coming to above, now the post methods have actionmethods that uses the tempdata that i have set when my view page loads i.e tempdata["Empid"] because this tempdata is needed to get details of employee.
So, it gets the data, reurn json formatted data and I show it in view perfectly.
Uptill here everything is fine. Now, I have one of the partialviews that uses the ajax post to hit controller which is not the same controller but a different cs file. Here this tempdata goes off.
Why is it happening so..
TempData is designed for a short life by default. So the data you set to TempDataDictionary object persists only from one request to the next request. After that it is not going to be available.
You can use the TempDataDictionary.Keep() method to persist the value for the next request again.
public ActionResult Index()
{
TempData["Message"]="Hello";
return View();
}
public ActionResult GetCustomer()
{
var msg = TempData["Message"] as string;
TempData.Keep("Message");
return View();
}

Does MVC remember checkbox values after submit?

I'm a php head and getting to grips with ASP.NET MVC 5.
In php, after submitting checkbox fields, in order to post back the form with the checkboxes you checked initially set to true, you have to run a if isset on em.
However reading up on model binding in mvc, it seems that this is done automatically for you, i.e checkboxes are returned after form submit checked, if originally selected, using either the HTML.CheckBox or HTML.CheckBoxFor helpers.
Is this the case, or am I expecting too much of MVC?
No, ASP.NET MVC doesn't remember checkbox values after they're submitted. Being an HTTP application as soon as ASP.NET MVC has rendered the HTML it ends the request and forgets everything about what it's just done. Then upon submitting a form ASP.NET MVC processes the incoming HTTP request and maps it to your model via its model binding (more on how it does this in a moment).
Having come from a PHP background myself this is one of those questions I always had when starting with ASP.NET MVC.
With ASP.NET MVC you have to remember that you're working within the context of a complete framework, and in order to ensure you're as productive as possible ASP.NET MVC will take care of a lot of the mundane work for you - ASP.NET MVC's model binding is a perfect example of this.
When submitting a form, the ASP.NET MVC framework will parse all incoming post data and attempt to automatically map it to the values you're providing it via your controller action.
So where as in PHP you'd normally do something along the lines of:
if(isset($_POST['checkboxValue'])) {
$checkboxVal = $_POST['checkboxValue'];
}
ASP.NET MVC will automaltically bind the incoming post data to your action parameter like so:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Submit(bool checkboxValue){
}
It does this by checking the parameter name (checkboxValue) matches that of the post data array key, and that the type also matches up. For instance, if you were to change the above checkboxValue from a boolean to a string and change the name, then ASP.NET MVC's model binding will be unable to match the property to the post data and will not automatically set the value for you.
It's also worth noting that ASP.NET MVC's model binding doesn't know how you created the checkbox.
The HTML.CheckBox and HTML.CheckBoxFor html helpers are purely a means to make it easier for you to create the HTML. If you were to manually write the HTML yourself then the model binder will still successfully bind the submitted data.
Edit:
As #DrinkBird has quite rightly pointed out, you're also able to access all of your form's post data by using the FormCollection instance like so:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Submit(FormCollection postData){
}
This collection represents all of the data posted to the Submit action.
Yes, model-binding should allow you to retrieve the value of a checkbox on submission.
if your model looks like:
public class myModel
{
public bool myBool {get; set;}
}
and in your HTML, you've used the helper
#Html.CheckBoxFor(m => m.myBool)
Then in your post action to handle the submission:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyAction(myModel model)
{
var whatsThis = model.myBool;
}
...whatsThis will be true if the checkbox was checked, false if not.
Part of why this works is that when you use #html.CheckBoxFor, it also places a hidden form field that will pass false if the box is unchecked, to aid with model binding -- if it didn't, per HTTP there would be no varibalbe 'myBool' submitted in the post-vars collection.
If you return this model back into the form (say, if it didn't validate), then the form will re-present the checkbox in whatever state it was in on submission:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyAction(myModel model)
{
if(!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return View(model);
}
else
{
//do success
}
}

Show partial view based on parameter

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.
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.

ASP.NET MVC - GET with one ViewModel, POST with another

I'm kind of a noob so please forgive me if this is a dumb question.
I am loading a page successfully using Model Binding in ASP.NET MVC 2. Now I want to use Model Binding to submit the results of a form, but I want to use a different Model that the one I loaded with. Is this possible? Or should I just use the same ViewModel for both purposes?
Yes it's definitely possible.
The only thing to remember is the name attributes on your form inputs must be the same as the properties in the viewmodel.
Currently I have a hand crafted form (no strongly typed helpers) which once posted binds to a view model.
Yes, that is possible. Your details controller action and create controller action are different methods so you can make them accept whatever types you want.
//
// GET /Test/12
public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
return View(new ViewModel{/*properties init*/});
}
//
// POST: /Test/Update
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Update(UpdateModel model)
{
//Do something with the model
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

Asp.net mvc: Posting Back from the View

Is it considered better practice to post back to the same controller that did the rendering and redirecting from original controller if necessary? Or is it just the same if one jumps to different controllers from the view?
I create two overloaded actions in the controller, one to render the input form using an HTTP GET and the other to process the form post using an HTTP POST. Something like this:
public ViewResult Foo()
{
return View();
}
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ViewResult Foo( FormCollection form )
{
// process input
if (inputOK)
return RedirectToAction("Index");
return View();
}
The benefit of doing it this way is that if there's an error, the view gets re-rendered with any error and validation messages. If it's successful, there's a redirect to another action, which avoids the duplicate posting warning on browsers if a user refreshes the page - see Post/Redirect/Get on Wikipedia and this blog entry by Stephen Walther.
There are alternatives to taking a FormCollection, e.g. a list of simple parameters or binding to an object. See this article by ScottGu.
I think that the action that is being called should be contained within a relevant controller for that action. If the view needs to call the action it should call it from the relevant controller, not necessarily the controller that it was spawned from.
If you have an inventory controller you don't want to define actions that relate to administration even if an inventory screen might have an administration action on it, as an example.

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