ASP.NET MVC Show success message

Question

Here is an example method I have that deletes a record from my app:

[Authorize(Roles = "news-admin")]
public ActionResult Delete(int id)
{
    var ArticleToDelete = (from a in _db.ArticleSet where a.storyId == id select a).FirstOrDefault();
    _db.DeleteObject(ArticleToDelete);
    _db.SaveChanges();

    return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

What I would like to do is show a message on the Index view that says something like: "Lorem ipsum article has been deleted" how would I do this? Thanks

Here is my current Index method, just in case:

    // INDEX
    [HandleError]
    public ActionResult Index(string query, int? page)
    {
        // build the query
        var ArticleQuery = from a in _db.ArticleSet select a;
        // check if their is a query
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(query))
        {
            ArticleQuery = ArticleQuery.Where(a => a.headline.Contains(query));
            //msp 2011-01-13 You need to send the query string to the View using ViewData
            ViewData["query"] = query;
        }
        // orders the articles by newest first
        var OrderedArticles = ArticleQuery.OrderByDescending(a => a.posted);
        // takes the ordered articles and paginates them using the PaginatedList class with 4 per page
        var PaginatedArticles = new PaginatedList<Article>(OrderedArticles, page ?? 0, 4);
        // return the paginated articles to the view
        return View(PaginatedArticles);
    }

Answer 1

One way would be to use TempData:

[Authorize(Roles = "news-admin")]
public ActionResult Delete(int id)
{
    var ArticleToDelete = (from a in _db.ArticleSet where a.storyId == id select a).FirstOrDefault();
    _db.DeleteObject(ArticleToDelete);
    _db.SaveChanges();
    TempData["message"] = ""Lorem ipsum article has been deleted";
    return RedirectToAction("Index");
}

and inside the Index action you could fetch this message from TempData and make use of it. For example you could pass it as a property of your view model which will be passed to the view so that it can show it:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var message = TempData["message"];
    // TODO: do something with the message like pass to the view
}

---

UPDATE:

Example:

public class MyViewModel
{
    public string Message { get; set; }
}

and then:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var model = new MyViewModel
    {
        Message = TempData["message"] as string;
    };
    return View(model);
}

and inside the strongly typed view:

<div><%: Model.Message %></div>