MVC which submit button has been pressed

Question

I have two buttons on my MVC form:

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

From my Controller action how do I know which one have been pressed?

Answer 1

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;
    }
}

Answer 2

To make it easier I will say you can change your buttons to the following:

<input name="btnSubmit" type="submit" value="Save" />
<input name="btnProcess" type="submit" value="Process" />

Your controller:

public ActionResult Create(string btnSubmit, string btnProcess)
{
    if(btnSubmit != null)
       // do something for the Button btnSubmit
    else 
       // do something for the Button btnProcess
}

Answer 3

Give the name to both of the buttons and Get the check the value from form.

<div>
   <input name="submitButton" type="submit" value="Register" />
</div>

<div>
   <input name="cancelButton" type="submit" value="Cancel" />
</div>

On controller side :

public ActionResult Save(FormCollection form)
{
 if (this.httpContext.Request.Form["cancelButton"] !=null)
 {
   // return to the action;
 }

else if(this.httpContext.Request.Form["submitButton"] !=null)
 {
   // save the oprtation and retrun to the action;
 }
}

Answer 4

<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
    }
}