How to link HTML5 form action to Controller ActionResult method in ASP.NET MVC 4

Question

I have a basic form for which I want to handle buttons inside the form by calling the ActionResult method in the View's associated Controller class. Here is the following HTML5 code for the form:

<h2>Welcome</h2>  <div>      <h3>Login</h3>      <form method="post" action= <!-- what goes here --> >         Username: <input type="text" name="username" /> <br />         Password: <input type="text" name="password" /> <br />         <input type="submit" value="Login">         <input type="submit" value="Create Account"/>     </form>  </div>  <!-- more code ... --> 

The corresponding Controller code is the following:

[HttpPost] public ActionResult MyAction(string input, FormCollection collection) {     switch (input)     {         case "Login":             // do some stuff...             break;         case "Create Account"             // do some other stuff...             break;     }      return View(); } 

Answer 1

you make the use of the HTML Helper and have

    @using(Html.BeginForm())     {         Username: <input type="text" name="username" /> <br />         Password: <input type="text" name="password" /> <br />         <input type="submit" value="Login">         <input type="submit" value="Create Account"/>     } 

or use the Url helper

<form method="post" action="@Url.Action("MyAction", "MyController")" > 

Html.BeginForm has several (13) overrides where you can specify more information, for example, a normal use when uploading files is using:

@using(Html.BeginForm("myaction", "mycontroller", FormMethod.Post, new {enctype = "multipart/form-data"})) {     < ... > } 

---

If you don't specify any arguments, the Html.BeginForm() will create a POST form that points to your current controller and current action. As an example, let's say you have a controller called Posts and an action called Delete

public ActionResult Delete(int id) {    var model = db.GetPostById(id);    return View(model); }  [HttpPost] public ActionResult Delete(int id) {     var model = db.GetPostById(id);     if(model != null)          db.DeletePost(id);      return RedirectToView("Index"); } 

and your html page would be something like:

<h2>Are you sure you want to delete?</h2> <p>The Post named <strong>@Model.Title</strong> will be deleted.</p>  @using(Html.BeginForm()) {     <input type="submit" class="btn btn-danger" value="Delete Post"/>     <text>or</text>     @Url.ActionLink("go to list", "Index") }