MVC which submit button has been pressed

Question

Name both your submit buttons the same

<input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" value="Save" />
<input name="submit" type="submit" id="process" value="Process" />

Then in your controller get the value of submit. Only the button clicked will pass its value.

public ActionResult Index(string submit)
{
    Response.Write(submit);
    return View();
}

You can of course assess that value to perform different operations with a switch block.

public ActionResult Index(string submit)
{
    switch (submit)
    {
        case "Save":
            // Do something
            break;
        case "Process":
            // Do something
            break;
        default:
            throw new Exception();
            break;
    }

    return View();
}

<input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" value="Save" />
<input name="process" type="submit" id="process" value="Process" />

And in your controller action:

public ActionResult SomeAction(string submit)
{
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(submit))
    {
        // Save was pressed
    }
    else
    {
        // Process was pressed
    }
}

this is a better answer, so we can have both text and value for a button:

http://weblogs.asp.net/dfindley/archive/2009/05/31/asp-net-mvc-multiple-buttons-in-the-same-form.aspx

</p>
<button name="button" value="register">Register</button>
<button name="button" value="cancel">Cancel</button>
</p>

and the controller:

public ActionResult Register(string button, string userName, string email, string password, string confirmPassword)
{
if (button == "cancel")
    return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
...

in short its a SUBMIT button but you choose the name using the name attribute, its even more powerful because your not obligated to the name submit or button in the controller method parameters, you can call it as you like...

you can identify your button from there name tag like below, You need to check like this in you controller

if (Request.Form["submit"] != null)
{
//Write your code here
}
else if (Request.Form["process"] != null)
{
//Write your code here
}

Here's a really nice and simple way of doing it with really easy to follow instructions using a custom MultiButtonAttribute:

http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2009/11/26/Supporting-multiple-submit-buttons-on-an-ASPNET-MVC-view.aspx

To summarise, make your submit buttons like this:

<input type="submit" value="Cancel" name="action" />
<input type="submit" value="Create" name="action" /> 

Your actions like this:

[HttpPost]
[MultiButton(MatchFormKey="action", MatchFormValue="Cancel")]
public ActionResult Cancel()
{
    return Content("Cancel clicked");
}

[HttpPost]
[MultiButton(MatchFormKey = "action", MatchFormValue = "Create")]
public ActionResult Create(Person person)
{
    return Content("Create clicked");
} 

And create this class:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class MultiButtonAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{
    public string MatchFormKey { get; set; }
    public string MatchFormValue { get; set; }

    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        return controllerContext.HttpContext.Request[MatchFormKey] != null &&
            controllerContext.HttpContext.Request[MatchFormKey] == MatchFormValue;
    }
}