How do I implement wizard type page navigation in an ASP.NET MVC 2 application?

Answer 1

this may not be exactly what you're looking for, but what if you use jQuery to hide and show DIV tags. Then the user will get the experience of a wizard while all content is all inside a single view. Then it can all be handled nicely with a single controller

Another option might be to create a separate view "step" for each wizard step

http://example.com/page/step/1

Then you can create a Class Object that contains ALL fields, and add to it as you navigate the wizard by adding to a Session Object

(Custom.Class.Obj)Session["myWizard"]

This way it allows you to build standard Views and load what information you have from the Session Object.

Answer 2

You should implement a strong typed view or control. In this type define a property indicating wich step you are and other logic. EX:

public class WizardView
{
     public List<string> Steps { get; set; }
     public int CurrentStepNumber {get;set;}

     public bool ShowNextButton
     {
         get
         {
             return CurrentStepNumber < this.Steps.Count-1;
         }
     }  

     public bool ShowPreviousButton
     {
         get
         {
             return CurrentStepNumber > 0;
         }
     }  
}

And your control:

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<WizardView>" %>


    <table width="100%">
       <tr>    

         <% 
            int index=0;
            foreach(string step in Model.Steps)
            {
            %>   
                <td class='<%=Model.CurrentStep==index?"current":"notcurrent" %> style="width:18%;">
                       <%= step %>
               </td>
           <%
                index++;  
             } %>
        </tr>
</table>

In your controller

public ActionResult MyAction(int step)
{
    return View (new WizardControl {
       Steps = Myrepository.getSteps();
       CurrentStep = step
     });
}

}

Answer 3

Here is another way to go - expanding on the WizardView approach. What you describe is a state engine - something aware of states, transitions and the behaviors and triggers associated with each.

If you check out an implementation like stateless (http://code.google.com/p/stateless/), you'll see that you can desribe the states (steps in the wizard view approach) and the triggers associated with each. Based on your description, you could either capture this information in your state engine wire up - or perhaps ignore it altogether by the fact that all transitions are discretely handled by the engine.

To go a step further, your view wire up can now become quite generic. No need for the view to be aware of the state fulness of the operations, just relying on the view model itself.