ActionLink routeValue from a TextBox

Question

I'm working on the following:

1- The user enters a value inside a textBox.

2- then clicks edit to go to the edit view.

This is my code:

   <%=   Html.TextBox("Name") %>

    <%: Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit")%> 

The problem is I can't figure out how to take the value from the textBox and pass it to the ActionLink, can you help me?

Solution

You can't unless you use javascript. A better way to achieve this would be to use a form instead of an ActionLink:

<% using (Html.BeginForm("Edit", "SomeController")) { %>
    <%= Html.TextBox("Name") %>
    <input type="submit" value="Edit" />
<% } %>

which will automatically send the value entered by the user in the textbox to the controller action:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Edit(string name)
{
    ...
}

And if you wanted to use an ActionLink here's how you could setup a javascript function which will send the value:

<%= Html.TextBox("Name") %>
<%= Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit", null, new { id = "edit" })%> 

and then:

$(function() {
    $('#edit').click(function() {
        var name = $('#Name').val();
        this.href = this.href + '?name=' + encodeURIComponent(name);
    });
});

Comments

[Lisa]

That would route to /SomeController/Edit without the name value

[Darin Dimitrov]

@Shaza, yes, exactly. The same as the ActionLink. You just need to specify the controller on which this Edit action is defined.

[Lisa]

How can I route to /someController/Edit/Sam ?

[Darin Dimitrov]

@Shaza, you can't using the form. You could adapt the javascript version I showed and instead of appending the name to the query string append it as route parameter: this.href = this.href + '/' + encodeURIComponent(name);.

[Lisa]

When the function gets called?