How to set an action for a MVC forum? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I want to set an action of a form when the user submits it. Instead of it reloading the current page I want to direct it to a controller to handle the request. How would I do this using the Razor engine within the the view.
<h2>#Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Title)</h2>
<p>#Html.Markdown(Model.Body)</p>
#if (Request.IsAuthenticated)
{
using (Html.BeginForm())
{
#Html.AntiForgeryToken()
#Html.ValidationSummary(true)
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.Id)
{
Model.ReplyId = ViewBag.Thread;
Model.Body = "";
}
#Html.HiddenFor(m => m.ReplyId);
<div class="form-horizontal">
<h4>Reply</h4>
<hr />
#Html.ValidationSummary(true)
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Body, "Markdown")
<div id="mdFormatted"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div><input type="submit" value="Reply" class="btn btn-default" /></div>
</div>
}
}
else
{
Response.Redirect(Url.Action("Index"));
}

Answer 1

You can do that like so:
#using (Html.BeginForm("action", "controller"))
{
}
There is also an overload to specify whether the form should be sent via GET or POST:
#using (Html.BeginForm("action", "controller", FormMethod.Post))
{
}
As a separate aside, you're not really following the MVC pattern with the flow of the rest of your code. Specifically, you shouldn't be doing any redirecting to different views from within a view itself, because that's exactly what a controller is responsible for. In your example, it would be better to do something like this:
public ActionResult YourAction()
{
if (!Request.IsAuthenticated)
return RedirectToAction("Index");
return View();
}
This allows you to move logic, which shouldn't be in the view, to the controller, which both simplifies your view and enforces the MVC pattern. One other note would be to look into using AuthorizeAttribute if you're redirecting the user to a login action.