Bootstrap modal form does not close after submit

Question

What I need to do is to show a popup to add a new record to my database, im using bootstrap 3 and I love it because im not using a single line of jquery, and I have really nice form (obvioulsy they are based in jquery).

I am validating my form via ajax, but the problem now is that my modal never closes, when I try to redirect to an Action the action is loaded inside my modal, so my question is how do I stop my modal?

This is an example of what this code does:

My form:

My form when when validated:

this is perfect with this code:

<div class="modal fade" id="myModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
<div class="modal-dialog">
    <div class="modal-content">
        <div class="modal-header">
            <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">&times;</button>
            <h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Add Car</h4>
        </div>
        <div class="modal-body">
            @using (Ajax.BeginForm("ModalAdd", new AjaxOptions() {UpdateTargetId = "mymodalform"}))
            {
                <div id="mymodalform">
                    @Html.Partial("CreatePartialView", new Car())
                </div>
            }
        </div>
    </div><!-- /.modal-content -->
</div><!-- /.modal-dialog -->

and my partial:

@model ControliBootstrap.Models.Car

    <div class="form-horizontal" >
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    <div class="form-group">
        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Model, new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })
        <div class="col-md-10">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Model)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Model)
        </div>
    </div>

    <!--More fields-->

    <div class="form-group">
        <div class="col-md-offset-2 col-md-10">
            <input type="submit" value="Create" class="btn btn-default"/>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

the problem now is than when model is valid in my controller I go to Index Action which is loaded inside my modal so my question again is how do I close my modal?

here is my controller:

public ActionResult ModalAdd(Car car)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            db.Cars.Add(car);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }

        return PartialView("CreatePartialView",car);
    }

Answer 1

This is a pretty common fundamental problem with this approach.

What we have is an AJAX form that, if the form fails to process, then the partial is re-rendered and returned to the browser so that the original form can be replaced with the new one. If the form succeeds, you want the browser to redirect to a new page but the problem is that the browser is expecting a page returned that it can insert into the modal.

The problem is that the approach is a dichotomy. That is, you need to either do a full page refresh or an AJAX request, but not both in which the appropriate logic is determined by the server.

One solution to this problem:

One thing that I can think of is to change the server's response to a Bad Request (400) when you are returning the partial to indicate that, although you are returning some HTML, the process did not complete successfully.

This means that you can take advantage of the OnFailure AjaxOption. If the result is a failure, then take the response data and insert it as normal in to the modal.

However if the status is 200 OK then return a URL and take advantage of OnSuccess and perform a simple javascript redirect to the URL.

Answer 2

Just for the record, I found my answer hope it helps someone else, it is really hard to find a full article of this.

I had to use more of jquery but It is a clean answer (I think).

Using data annotations in my model:

[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }

[Required]
public string Phone { get; set; }

Then I created a partial in my shared folder that contains my modal form, so I can make it global.

@model Controli.Models.Provider

<!-- Modal -->
<div class="modal fade" id="mdlnewprovider" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
    <div class="modal-dialog">
        <div class="modal-content">
        @using (Html.BeginForm("Add", "Providers", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "frmnewprovider" }))
        {
        <div class="modal-header">
            <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">&times;</button>
            <h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Nuevo Proveedor</h4>
        </div>
        <div class="modal-body">
            <div class="form-group">
                @Html.TextBoxFor(u => u.Name, new { @class = "form-control", @placeholder = HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(@Html.DisplayNameFor(u => u.Name).ToHtmlString()) })
                @Html.ValidationMessageFor(u => u.Name)
            </div>
            <!--More Textboxes and Validaton Messages-->
        </div>
        <div class="modal-footer">
            <input type="submit" value="Agregar" class="btn btn-primary" />
        </div>
        }
        </div><!-- /.modal-content -->
    </div><!-- /.modal-dialog -->
</div><!-- /.modal -->

And the script:

var frmnewprovider = $("#forms-providers-new");
$(document).ready(function () {
frmnewprovider.submit(function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    frmnewprovider.validate();
    if (frmnewprovider.valid()) {
        $.ajax({
            url: "/Providers/Add",
            type: "POST",
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            data: JSON.stringify({
                Name: frmnewprovider.find('#Name').val(),
                Phone: frmnewprovider.find('#Phone').val(),
                Email: frmnewprovider.find('#Email').val(),
                Country: frmnewprovider.find('#Country').val(),
                State: frmnewprovider.find('#State').val(),
                Address: frmnewprovider.find('#Address').val()
            }),
            success: function (result) {
                //if record was added to db, then...
                window.location.replace('/Providers/Index'); //we can redirect
                //or simply close our modal.
                //$('#mdlnewprovider').modal('hide');
            },
            error: function(result) {
                alert('error');
            }
        });
    }
});
});

Now all I have to do to render my form where ever I need it is to add these lines:

<button class="btn btn-primary" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#mdlnewprovider">
    Nuevo
</button>

@Html.Partial("Modals/Providers/FrmNew", new Provider())

@section scripts
{
<script src="~/Scripts/Modals/Providers/NewProvider.js"></script>
<!--Where this script is the one above-->
}

Finally since my model was client-side validated I just add my model to my database, and redirect to Index view, while the ajax call hides active modal Update: I recommend to decide if redirect or hide modal at ajax call. like commented.

    public ActionResult Add(Provider provider)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid) //Validate in server side too!
        {
            db.Providers.Add(provider);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return Json(new{ success = true}); //return a dummy json, you can pass what
                                               //ever parameter you need. if code reach
                                               //this point. it will always hit success 
                                               //in our ajax call
        }
    }

make sure your web.config contains:

<appSettings>
  <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
  <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
</appSettings>

Im using these scripts too:

<script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.js"></script>
<script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js"></script>

Please let me know if something could be better.

Answer 3

You are going to have to write some jquery - sorry

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("ModalAdd", new AjaxOptions() {UpdateTargetId = "mymodalform", OnSuccess= "$('#myModal').modal('hide');"}))

But its just one line

Answer 4

I used JavaScript to control the page redirection and reloading.

Options which I used are:

1. Return a JavaScript function to refresh the host page instead of a RedirectToAction, when the controller action is successful.

   return this.Content("< script >location.reload()< /script >");

2. Return a JavaScript function to redirect the client to the page.
   How to redirect to another webpage in JavaScript/jQuery?

3. RedirectToAction which has the required JavaScript redirection or reloading logic within the view