Using ViewData to pass string from Controller to View in ASP.NET MVC3

Question

I am trying to pass a random string from my Controller to the View.

Here is my Controller code:

 [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult DisplayForm(UserView user)
    {
       //some  data processing over here
        ViewData["choice"] = "Apple";

        return RedirectToAction("Next", "Account");
    }

Now I want to pass that data value "Apple" to my view Next.cshtml which is created as follows:

//View: Next.cshtml

  @{
    ViewBag.Title = "Thanks for registering";
    Layout = "~/Content/orangeflower/_layout.cshtml";
   }
    <p>Your favorite fruit is:</p>@ViewData["choice"]

But I am not able to see my data in the browser when the project runs.

Here is the snapshot:

1) On debug, the controller showing the value:

2) The browser view doesn't show the value "Apple"

3) On further debug to my Next.cshtml View:

Why is the value not getting passed to the View correctly. Both my controllers for Next and DisplayForm are within the same Controller AccountController.cs , still value not getting displayed.

Can someone help me solve this ?

Answer 1

You are not rendering a view, you are redirecting. If you wanted to pass some information tyo the view you need to return this view after adding it to ViewData:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult DisplayForm(UserView user)
{
    //some  data processing over here
    ViewData["choice"] = "Apple";

    return View();
}

If you want to pass a message that will survive after a redirect you could use TempData instead of ViewData.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult DisplayForm(UserView user)
{
    //some  data processing over here
    TempData["choice"] = "Apple";

    return RedirectToAction("Next", "Account");
}

then inside the Next action you could fetch the data from TempData and store it inside ViewData so that the view can read it.

Answer 2

You are performing a post - redirect - get. The ViewData is being set for this request, which returns a redirect, clearing the ViewData, then another request happens which does not have the data. Use TempData instead and it will be added to the ViewData automatically on the next request.