How can I maintain ModelState with RedirectToAction?

Question

How can I return the result of a different action or move the user to a different action if there is an error in my ModelState without losing my ModelState information?

Answer 1

In case this is useful to anyone I used @bob 's recommended solution using PRG:

see item 13 -> link.

I had the additional issue of messages being passed in the VeiwBag to the View being written and checked / loaded manually from TempData in the controller actions when doing a RedirectToAction("Action"). In an attempt to simplify (and also make it maintainable) I slightly extended this approach to check and store/load other data as well. My action methods looked something like:

 [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
 [ExportModelStateToTempData]
 public ActionResult ChangePassword(ProfileViewModel pVM) {
      bool result = MyChangePasswordCode(pVM.ChangePasswordViewModel);
      if (result) {
           ViewBag.Message = "Password change success";
      else {
           ModelState.AddModelError("ChangePassword", "Some password error");
      }
      return RedirectToAction("Index");
    }

And my Index Action:

[ImportModelStateFromTempData]
public ActionResult Index() {
    ProfileViewModel pVM = new ProfileViewModel { //setup }
    return View(pVM);
}

The code in the Action Filters:

// Following best practices as listed here for storing / restoring model data:
// http://weblogs.asp.net/rashid/archive/2009/04/01/asp-net-mvc-best-practices-part-1.aspx#prg
public abstract class ModelStateTempDataTransfer : ActionFilterAttribute {
    protected static readonly string Key = typeof(ModelStateTempDataTransfer).FullName;
}

:

public class ExportModelStateToTempData : ModelStateTempDataTransfer {
    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext) {
        //Only export when ModelState is not valid
        if (!filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid) {
            //Export if we are redirecting
            if ((filterContext.Result is RedirectResult) || (filterContext.Result is RedirectToRouteResult)) {
                filterContext.Controller.TempData[Key] = filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState;
            }
        }
        // Added to pull message from ViewBag
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(filterContext.Controller.ViewBag.Message)) {
            filterContext.Controller.TempData["Message"] = filterContext.Controller.ViewBag.Message;
        }

        base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
    }
}

:

public class ImportModelStateFromTempData : ModelStateTempDataTransfer {
    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext) {
        ModelStateDictionary modelState = filterContext.Controller.TempData[Key] as ModelStateDictionary;

        if (modelState != null) {
            //Only Import if we are viewing
            if (filterContext.Result is ViewResult) {
                filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.Merge(modelState);
            } else {
                //Otherwise remove it.
                filterContext.Controller.TempData.Remove(Key);
            }
        }
        // Restore Viewbag message
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)filterContext.Controller.TempData["Message"])) {
            filterContext.Controller.ViewBag.Message = filterContext.Controller.TempData["Message"];
        }

        base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
    }
}

I realize my changes here are a pretty obvious extension of what was already being done with the ModelState by the code @ the link provided by @bob - but I had to stumble on this thread before I even thought of handling it in this way.