How to link HTML5 form action to Controller ActionResult method in ASP.NET MVC 4 - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have a basic form for which I want to handle buttons inside the form by calling the ActionResult method in the View's associated Controller class. Here is the following HTML5 code for the form:
<h2>Welcome</h2>
<div>
<h3>Login</h3>
<form method="post" action= <!-- what goes here --> >
Username: <input type="text" name="username" /> <br />
Password: <input type="text" name="password" /> <br />
<input type="submit" value="Login">
<input type="submit" value="Create Account"/>
</form>
</div>
<!-- more code ... -->
The corresponding Controller code is the following:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyAction(string input, FormCollection collection)
{
switch (input)
{
case "Login":
// do some stuff...
break;
case "Create Account"
// do some other stuff...
break;
}
return View();
}

Answer 1

you make the use of the HTML Helper and have
#using(Html.BeginForm())
{
Username: <input type="text" name="username" /> <br />
Password: <input type="text" name="password" /> <br />
<input type="submit" value="Login">
<input type="submit" value="Create Account"/>
}
or use the Url helper
<form method="post" action="#Url.Action("MyAction", "MyController")" >
Html.BeginForm has several (13) overrides where you can specify more information, for example, a normal use when uploading files is using:
#using(Html.BeginForm("myaction", "mycontroller", FormMethod.Post, new {enctype = "multipart/form-data"}))
{
< ... >
}
If you don't specify any arguments, the Html.BeginForm() will create a POST form that points to your current controller and current action. As an example, let's say you have a controller called Posts and an action called Delete
public ActionResult Delete(int id)
{
var model = db.GetPostById(id);
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Delete(int id)
{
var model = db.GetPostById(id);
if(model != null)
db.DeletePost(id);
return RedirectToView("Index");
}
and your html page would be something like:
<h2>Are you sure you want to delete?</h2>
<p>The Post named <strong>#Model.Title</strong> will be deleted.</p>
#using(Html.BeginForm())
{
<input type="submit" class="btn btn-danger" value="Delete Post"/>
<text>or</text>
#Url.ActionLink("go to list", "Index")
}

Answer 2

Here I'm basically wrapping a button in a link. The advantage is that you can post to different action methods in the same form.
<a href="Controller/ActionMethod">
<input type="button" value="Click Me" />
</a>
Adding parameters:
<a href="Controller/ActionMethod?userName=ted">
<input type="button" value="Click Me" />
</a>
Adding parameters from a non-enumerated Model:
<a href="Controller/ActionMethod?userName=#Model.UserName">
<input type="button" value="Click Me" />
</a>
You can do the same for an enumerated Model too. You would just have to reference a single entity first. Happy Coding!