On All Things Web

Html.Action is a method method that injects a response from the server directly into the UI.  For instance, a controller can have two action methods, then inject the response directly into the UI from the other controller.  Take a look at the sample form below:

<p>
 Main Action
</p>

<% Html.BeginForm(); %>

 <div>
  Name: <%= Html.TextBox(“IndexName”) %>
 </div>
 <div>
  Value: <%= Html.TextBox(“IndexValue”) %>
 </div>
 
 <input type=”submit” value=”save” />

<% Html.EndForm(); %>

<%= Html.Action(“Custom”, new { title = “Test Title” }) %>

 The custom action gets invoked and injected into the main view.  Any parameters that get passed to the action method get passed as a routing parameter, as shown here (a title property).  Below is the sample controller methods that return the view to inject.

[HttpGet, ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult Custom()
{
 return PartialView();
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Custom(FormCollection form)
{
 return PartialView();
}

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index()
{
 return View();
}

The main view calls the Index method to get the response, that view calls the Custom action method.  Note the ChildActionOnly attribute; this designates that the action method can only be used within a main view.  The Custom action method returns a PartialView to insert a partial response into the UI, rather than including a whole view.  The child view below is what gets injected.  This partial view has its own form to receive a post to the server.

<p>
    Custom Action
</p>

<% Html.BeginForm(“Custom”, “RenderingActions”); %>

    <div>
        Name: <%= Html.TextBox(“CustomName”) %>
    </div>
    <div>
        Value: <%= Html.TextBox(“CustomValue”)%>
    </div>
  
    <input type=”submit” value=”save” />

<% Html.EndForm(); %>

And that’s it, we can have multiple actions linked to one view, and they all can post back to their own action methods and such.  I plan to cover some of the other details at a later date.