How to pass textbox value into query string in asp.net mvc

Question

Hi guys, Yet another newbie with ASP.NET MVC! All I intend to do is for a search textbox on my page, if I type something and click search, the url to be redirected to should have the following at the end, like in stackoverflow,

/search?q=searchedtext

So here is what I have now,

<input id="searchText" maxlength="100" type="text" name="query" />
    <a href="???"  class="searchButton">        
        Search        
    </a>

I have a function in my controller like this,

public ActionResult Search(string query)
 {

 }

Here is the route,

routes.MapRoute(
            "Search",                                            
            "Search",                          
            new { controller = "Posts", action = "Search"} 
        );

Can anyone fill in the gaps here :). Any comments appreciated.

Answer 1

Wrap it with form tag, set it's method to "GET", use input type='submit' for submitting form (instead of 'a' tag), name text input as query (already done), accept query as string in parameters (already done), call model from controller to process request, update ViewData.Model, return appropriate view result (partial, if AJAX is used).

If you want to pass query through URL not through query string key/values,
you must specify correct route for that.

I guess that would be something like:

routes.MapRoute(  
            "Search", // Route name  
            "search/{query}", // URL with parameters  
            new 
              { controller = "search", action = "search"}  // Parameter defaults
        );

Answer 2

You need to wrap that client side code in a form:

<form action="/Search" method="get">
   <input id="q" name="q" maxlength="100" type="text" />
   <input type="submit" id="submit" value="Search" />
</form>

Answer 3

here is what i did:

<% Html.BeginForm("Search", "controller name", FormMethod.Get); %>
        <input id="criteria" name="criteria" maxlength="120" type="text" style="width:120px; " />
        <input type="image" alt="search" />
    <% Html.EndForm(); %>

public ActionResult Search(string criteria)
    {
       //search code goes here
    }