What should the action return when submitting multiple forms in an MVC app?

Question

I have a form with multiple tabs. Each tab has its own <form>, defined like this:

<%  Using Html.BeginForm("Save", "FirstSection")%>

I've got a master Save button that submits all the forms on the page like this:

$("form").each(function() { $(this).submit(); });

The problem is that I don't know what each Save action should return:

<AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)> _
Function Save(ByVal data As MyTable) As ActionResult
    SaveTheDataHere()
    Return View()
End Function

If I use Return View() it's going to fail because I don't have a "get" equivalent for the Save action. What I really want the post to do is nothing - just save the data and be done.

Is there a better return value to use?

Answer 1

You could return a simple JsonResult with a status message. This would be good practice anyway, since then you would know if something failed with your form posts.

public JsonResult Save()
{
    SaveTheDataHere()
    return Json("Success");
}

Sorry for the C#. My VB is rusty.

Answer 2

This:

$("form").each(function() { $(this).submit(); });

Is not a good idea. First submision will reload the page and the other forms might not be submitted. The better solutions:

1. Place all form controls in one form and use javascript to show/hide active tab. Only one submit button will submit all the tabs data.
2. Use different view for each tab.

Answer 3

PanJanek is right

also

You could use ajax and json with jQuery it's very easy

but it seems like you like your current process, you could

return View("namedView") or redirectToAction("actionName")