Asp.NET MVC ActionFilter cannot get Form Submit data

Question

I want to use custom action filter to manipulate parameters to one action.

User inputs: 2 names in a form ;

Action: actually needs to take 2 ids;

Action Filter (onExecuting, will verify the input names and if valid, convert them into 2 ids and replace in the routedata)

because i don't want to put validation logic in Action Controller.

here's part of the code:

1. Routing Info

   routes.MapRoute( "Default", // Route name "{controller}/{action}", // URL with parameters new { controller = "Home", action = "Index"} // Parameter defaults );

   routes.MapRoute( "RelationshipResults", // Route Name "Relationship/{initPersonID}/{targetPersonID}", // URL with parameters new { controller = "Relationship", action = "Results" });

2. Form to submit (Create 2 input box and submit via jquery)

   <% using (Html.BeginForm("Results", "Relationship", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "formSearch" })) {%>
   ...

       <td align="left"><%: MvcWeibookWeb.Properties.Resource.Home_InitPersonName%></td>
       <td align="right"> <%= Html.TextBox("initPersonID")%></td>
       <td rowspan="3" valign="top">
           <div id="sinaIntro">
           <%: MvcWeibookWeb.Properties.Resource.Home_SinaIntro %>
           <br />
           <%: MvcWeibookWeb.Properties.Resource.Genearl_PromotionSina %>
           </div>
       </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
       <td align="left" width="90px"><%: MvcWeibookWeb.Properties.Resource.Home_TargetPersonName%></td>
       <td align="right"><%= Html.TextBox("targetPersonID")%></td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
       <td colspan="2" align="right">
           <a href="#" class="btn-HomeSearch" onclick="$('#formSearch').submit();"><%: MvcWeibookWeb.Properties.Resource.Home_Search%></a>
       </td>
   

3. Action Filter

   public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
   {
       Sina.Searcher searcher = new Sina.Searcher(Sina.Processor.UserNetwork);
       String initPersonName, targetPersonName;
   
   
   // form submit names, we need to process them and convert them to IDs before it enters the real controller.
   initPersonName = filterContext.RouteData.Values["initPersonID"] as String;
   targetPersonName = filterContext.RouteData.Values["targetPersonID"] as String;
   
   
   // do sth to convert it to ids and replace
   

4. Action/Controller

   [ValidationActionFilter] [HandleError] public ActionResult Results( Int64 initPersonID, Int64 targetPersonID) { ...

My problem is: in the actionFilter, it never gets the 2 parameters "initPersonID" and "targetPersonID", the RouteData.Values don't contain these 2 keys...

:(

Answer 1

The problem is that since your routes don't have any values for initPersonName and targetPersonName, they never end up in your route data. Try (even though it looks a little odd):

initPersonName = filterContext.RouteData.Values["initPersonID"] as String;
targetPersonName = filterContext.RouteData.Values["targetPersonID"] as String;

Since "...ID" whas what the values where called in your routes, that's what you have to look for in your route data. The fact that you're actually not including the ID's in the url is another matter...