ASP.NET MVC - how to get the value from a textbox in my View?

Question

If I have a textbox in my view:

<div><%= Html.TextBox("Comments", Model.Comments)%></div>

I want to post the contents of this textbox to the controller with an Ajax call. I only need this one value though, so I don't want to post the whole form back.

<%= Ajax.ActionLink("update", "UpdateComments", 
                new { comments = /* ????? */ }, 
                new AjaxOptions { HttpMethod="POST" })%>

How do I get the textbox value?

Answer 1

Rather than writing server-side ajax code, you should use client-side Ajax (e.g. jQuery) to get the runtime value of the textbox and post that value.

Answer 2

You can use Ajax in jquery. Like this

function FunctionName() { $.Post(URl, function(data) {

    });
}

Answer 3

using jQuery, you could retrieve the value in the following manner.

$("#Comments").val();

Answer 4

Ajax.ActionLink is a helper function, that generates a JS-enabled link, that sends data via AJAX. Because it is generated serverside, and the value is generated on the client side, you can not pass a single value like that. You either have to manually write HTML and JS, or submit a whole form containing this element (and watch out not to nest it inside another form).