Note: I am uses this method over the previous post as I think it is cleaner.
Firstly, you can disable client validation on your cancel button simply by adding the CSS class 'cancel' to it. See: Disable client-side validation in MVC 3 "cancel" submit button
Secondly, as well as switching on the submit element's form name as described above, you can use a custom action selector. Here's mine, which I originally took from the blog post shown in the comment:
/// <summary>
/// Used to vary an action method based on which button in a form was pressed. This
/// is useful but is an anti-pattern because it couples the controller to names
/// used in the form elements.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// See the example at http://weblogs.asp.net/dfindley/archive/2009/05/31/asp-net-mvc-multiple-buttons-in-the-same-form.aspx
/// </remarks>
public class AcceptButtonAttribute : ActionMethodSelectorAttribute
{
public string ButtonName { get; set; }
public override bool IsValidForRequest(ControllerContext controllerContext, MethodInfo methodInfo)
{
var req = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(req.Form[this.ButtonName]);
}
}
In your controller:
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("Edit")]
[AcceptButton(ButtonName = "Cancel")]
public ActionResult Edit_Cancel(MyModel model)
{
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
[HttpPost]
[AcceptButton(ButtonName = "Save")]
public ActionResult Edit(MyModel model)
{
// do real work here
}
Note that you need the [ActionName("Edit")] attribute to tell MVC that although using a different method name, it is for the Edit action.
And in your View:
<input type="submit" name="Save" value="Save" />
<input type="submit" name="Cancel" value="Cancel" class="cancel" />
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