Multiple Search Buttons in MVC3

Question

There are a few questions on SO about multiple submit buttons, such as How do you handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework? but what I am having trouble with is having multiple search buttons, each with it's own associated textbox for the value being searched for, and which searches it's own set of data. For example..

    <div class="leftContentColumnRow">
        @Html.TextBox("SearchString", null, new { placeholder = "Search Roles..." })

        <input type="submit" value="" class="searchbtn" name="SearchRoles" />
    </div>

    <div class="rightContentColumnRow">
        @Html.TextBox("SearchString", null, new { placeholder = "Search Permissions..." })
        <input type="submit" value="" class="searchbtn" name="SearchPermissions" />
    </div>

I can determine which button has been clicked, but I am struggling to get hold of the data in both textboxes.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 24 '12 at 15:32

2

Use a separate form for each input button pair with a different action for the form.

answered Aug 24 '12 at 15:32

Oded

489,969
99
883
1,009

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '12 at 15:38

Like Oded said, 2 forms, each has it'w own action paramter value.

@using(Html.Beginform("SearchRole","User")
{
    <div class="leftContentColumnRow">
        @Html.TextBox("SearchString", null, new { placeholder = "Search Roles..." })

        <input type="submit" value="" class="searchbtn" name="SearchRoles" />
    </div>
}
@using(Html.Beginform("SearchPermissions","User")
{
    <div class="rightContentColumnRow">
        @Html.TextBox("SearchString", null, new { placeholder = "Search Permissions..." })
        <input type="submit" value="" class="searchbtn" name="SearchPermissions" />
    </div>
}

and the Action methods

public ActionResult SearchRole(string SearchString)
{
  //get data and return something
}
public ActionResult SearchPermissions(string SearchString)
{
  //get data and return something
}

I should just comment, make sure you do not nest forms. Nested forms is not legal HTML. (the code above is not nested, I just want to make it clear that this should not be done). — Erik Funkenbusch, Aug 24 '12 at 15:46
Thanks. That answers my question - the fact I have to work out the results, presumably with some partial views is my problem :) Thanks. MM yep got that thanks. Oded cheers - Shyju fleshed it out by the time I took a look.. — Fetchez la vache, Aug 24 '12 at 16:03

Multiple Search Buttons in MVC3

2 Answers2