ASP.NET MVC - Go to a different view without changing URL - asp.net-mvc

is it possible to go to a different View without changing the URL? For example in my Index View, I have a link to go the the Details View but I would like to keep the URL the same.
Thank you very much,
Kenny.

As already mentioned, you could make the Details link an Ajax.ActionLink and use this to change the content of a div.
Failing that, the only other way I can think of doing it is by making your details link a button and POST to your index action. You could apply CSS to the button to make it appear more like a normal html link.
public class HomeController : Controller {
public ActionResult Index() {
return View("Index");
}
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Index(int hiddenInputFieldId) {
return View("Details");
}
}
EDIT:
Based on JonoW's comment, you'll have to pass in a 'fake' param with your post, this is not really a problem though, you can just use a hidden input field for it.

You can return the same view from multiple controller actions, but each controller action requires a unique URL:
public class HomeController : Controller {
public ActionResult Index() {
return View("home");
}
public ActionResult About() {
return View("home");
}
}
If you want a link to load up content from a different page without changing the URL, you'll have to use some Ajax to call the server for the content and update the parts of the page you need to change with the new content.

I don't know why you would like to do that, but you could have an Ajax.Actionlink which renders the Details View..
There is almost no reason to hide an URL, not sure what you would like to to.. maybe you explain further that someone can give a better approach.

You can use a good old Server.Transfer for this. However, I'd suggest doing it like has been detailed in this SO post. This gives you an easy way to return an ActionMethod from your current action without peppering your code with Server.Transfer() everywhere.

You can do this by rendering partials- I do this to load different search screens. Sample code is as follows (this is slightly different to my actual code, but you'll get the idea):
<% Html.RenderPartial(Model.NameOfPartialViewHere, Model.SomeVM); %>
Personally though, I don't see why you don't just change the URL?

Related

ASP.NET MVC. Specific URL for partial views

I'm new to ASP.NET MVC. So my question may seem to be little bit naive. Anyway I've spent hours searching for any information on my topic, but no result. So I would be very grateful for your help.
So this is my problem.
In my Index view I have a div, where I put contents of different Partial Views depending on the link that user clicks.
Here's the code.
Index.cshtml:
<div id="dynamicContent"></div>
About Cbsr Agent
Application Areas Of CBSR
JavaScript:
function updateContent(contentUrl) {
$.ajax({
url: contentUrl,
type: "GET",
success: function (data) {
$('#dynamicContent').html(data);
}
});
}
Controller:
public class AgentController : Controller
{
//Index action
public ActionResult DynamicContent(string name)
{
return PartialView(String.Format("Partial/" + name));
}
}
So, everything works fine. When user clicks the link, the appropriate partial view is loading into the div.
The problem is that in adrees bar of a browser i get the following URL: example.com/Agent# whatever link i click.
So my question: Is there any way to generate the unique URL for each partial view? For example: example.com/agent/partial/AboutCbsrAgent. And is it possible to make so that when I paste this link into the browser's address bar, the whole view and NECESSARY partial view will be displayed?
Thank you in advance for your help!
You can create two separate actions in your AgentController, for the two URLs, and pass name of the partial view you want to render. Something like:
public ActionResult AboutCbsrAgent()
{
ViewBag.MyPartialView = "AboutCbsrAgent";
....
return View("Index");
}
Then in your Index.cshtml:
<div id="dynamicContent">
#Html.Partial(ViewBag.MyPartialView)
</div>
You'll probably need to adjust the paths, but you get the idea.
If you want to avoid the # in your url use:
About Cbsr Agent
If you know your users are mainly FF, Chrome, IE9 <, or you don't care if the browser doesn't support it, you can use history.pushState
Although you will still have to find a solution for loading the correct content if the user revisists that url (with pushState)

register and login in one page changes my url

Im having the following issue.
I have a View typed to a class SiteAuthenticationVM.cs.
The name of my view is "SiteAuthentication.cshtml" into the folder Views/Users
For other hand, i have one controller called UsersController with 4 actions:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Registration()
{
return View("SiteAuthentication");
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Registration(SiteAuthenticationVM usertoregister)
{
return View("SiteAuthentication",usertoregister);
}
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Login()
{
return View("SiteAuthentication");
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Login(SiteAuthenticationVM usertologin)
{
return View("SiteAuthentication",usertoregister);
}
I have 2 routes defined:
"/register" is handled by UsersController Registration action.
"/login" is handled by UsersController Login action.
When i post my Login form is posted to /login if previously i was in url "/register", it changes to /login. Is there any way to keep my url "/register" for both post actions?
Is a bad practice if the url changes?
Your URL is denoting the controller method which is called, not whih View is being displayed. You can't change that, this is how MVC works. And your browser doesn't like to change its URL to 'B' if it needed 'A' to display that page, you cant really change it at rendertime.
Funny thing, if you had given your methods the same name, and had named your views differently, it would've worked without a hitch :-)
However, there are a few ways I can think of to get around this:
Give your methods the same name. This is the most straight-forward option. You can keep your View names, it's the method name that is important.
Make a method (e.g. "Switchboard") that calls either return View("Login") or return View("Register"). Your URL will contain "Switchboard" (you'll want a better name, but you get the idea).
Make the Login and Register pages into PartialViews. Display these in 1 View ("Switchboard", same name method). Then the URL will always denote the method ("Switchboard") you called for the View, not the PartialView.
Just remember, in MVC it's not about which View you are displaying, it's about which method you are calling.

How can I make an MVC POST return me to the previous page?

I have the following action which is called from a screen with a list of records.
[HttpPost]
//[Authorize(Roles = "admin")]
public ActionResult Edit(EditViewModel itemView)
{
Once the action has completed I would like to return to the page where the action was called from. However I don't want to refresh that page. I just want to go back to the populated screen using something similar to the "Previous" button in the browser. Right now when I click "save" my action does the following which is not what I want:
return RedirectToAction("Index");
Is there some way to Redirect to previous page with MVC3?
Something like the Stackoverflow functionality after I click edit to edit an answer where it returns to the post.
Instead of a redirection,
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index()
{
/// preform any processing necessary for your index page on GET
return View("Index");
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResuit Edit(EditViewModel itemView)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
/// do whatever you want with your model...
}
// return the contents as they'd be rendered by the Index action
return Index();
}
Note that with this method the URL in the browser will still display the Edit url (like /area_name/edit), but you can fix that by:
Using a redirect (which you've said you don't want to do)
Using JavaScript to update the URL, or use history.back() as #AlanStephens suggested
Probably other methods that don't immediately come to mind.
However, I'd question whether this is really the best approach. Typically, users expect different URLs to do different things.
Or, if I understand you correctly and the edit action is being called from the Index page,
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost] /// from a form on Index
public ActionResult Index(EditViewModel model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
////
}
return View();
}
and just take the /Edit out of play entirely. Again, I don't really care for this approach.
Based off the code you've given, it looks like you've got a paginated screen, with the ability to click edit on each row. Here's how I've solved this problem in the past.
On the Index page, when the page loads, whether it be from the main index or a paging method, add the following:
Session["CurrentUrl"] = Request.Url.ToString();
So now, at the end of the POST method for your edit page, do:
return Session["CurrentUrl"] == null ?
Index() :
Redirect(Session["CurrentUrl"]);
What you described is easily achieved using ajax calls. That way you perform whatever action you like and afterwards (on successful response), you can easily navigate from the current page, using javascript.
If you POST to a page and in response you return the same view you receive with a GET request (index page), then some users might hit F5 to reload that index page and get a warning in the browser, which actually says it will send the POST request again. This is pretty confusing for users and not really user friendly (not to mention numerous concerns related to idem-potency of it).
Although you don't like the redirect approach, because of the additional response, I guess, I should say that, in MVC, this is the correct way to do it, assuming you don't want to use ajax calls.

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.

How to call controller action on page load in asp.net mvc

I have a view that looks like this:
http://whatever/Download/viaId/12345
And i would like to call the action
public void viaId (int Id)
{
//Code
}
when the page loads. Right now I only have the controller implemented and when I browse the url the parameter Id is null.
Do i need to create the view and call it through javascript ?
Ok i got it solved. I did not have the parameter mapped on the RouteCollection. thanks for your suggestions
It sounds like you don't have a view, you just have a URL and an action.
You should create a view called "viaId" for your Controller to give to the user. The easiest way to do this is to right click on the action and click "Add View" (assuming you're using Visual Studio).
Additionally, the viaId method should probably return ActionResult instead of void.
I think you just need to add the attribute
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]
public void viaId(int id) {}

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