ASP.NET MVC 3 Multiple Submit Inputs in One Form

Question

I am currently having an issue with multiple action buttons being in the same form.

The first button would perform verification while the second button would save pr

Answer 1

I do something slightly different;

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Save Draft" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Publish" />

Then you can get at the values using;

FormCollection["submit"]

Thanks,

Matt

Answer 2

<input type="submit" name="nameONE" />
<input type="submit" name="nameTWO" />

            [HttpPost, ActionName("OrginalActionName")]
            [FormValueRequired("nameONE")]
            public ActionResult WhateverYouWantONE(type name)
            {
                code...
            }

            [HttpPost, ActionName("OrginalActionName")]
            [FormValueRequired("nameTWO")]
            public ActionResult WhateverYouWantTWO(type name)
            {
                code...
            }

Answer 3

The best approach is to have separate actions handling the different button calls as explained in this article.

If you want to have one ugly action doing all the stuff then you could give your submit buttons names:

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    ... input fields for the model

    <button type="submit" name="btn" value="verify">Verify data</button>
    <button type="submit" name="btn" value="save">Save data</button>    
    <button type="submit" name="btn" value="redirect">Redirect</button>
}

You don't need any hidden fields or javascript. And then in your controller action you would check for the value of the btn parameter (which obviously will be part of you view model):

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Foo(MyViewsModel model)
{
    if (model.Btn == "verify")
    {
        // the Verify button was clicked
    }
    else if (model.Btn == "save")
    {
        // the Save button was clicked
    } 
    else if (model.Btn == "redirect")
    {
        // the Redirect button was clicked
    } 
    else
    {
        // ??? throw
    }

    ...
}

Of course if you follow my advice and separate your actions (as outlined in the article):

@using (Html.BeginForm("Action", "Home"))
{
    ... input fields for the model

    <input type="submit" name="verify" value="Verify data" />
    <input type="submit" name="save" value="Save data" />
    <input type="submit" name="redirect" value="Redirect" />
}

and then:

[HttpParamAction]
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Verify(MyViewModel model)
{
    ...
}

[HttpParamAction]
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save(MyViewModel model)
{
    ...
}

[HttpParamAction]
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Redirect(MyViewModel model)
{
    ...
}

which is a far cleaner code which doesn't violate the Single Responsibility Principle.