Pass model from strongly typed view back to a controller action - mvc2 VB.net

Question

Hello hello. Here's what I have. I have an MVC application where all the data is tied together by VisitDate table in my database. The home page is a strongly typed view of type VisitDate, all it does is pull up some simple data. Now, here's where I'm having a problemo. I need a link that passes the current model in the view back to a seperate controller action so I can render a different page with different data.

Here are my two controller actions. I'm going from News.aspx to FrontPage.aspx and hopefully passing SchoolVisit.

Function News(ByVal SchoolVisit As SchoolVisitDate) As ActionResult

    Dim db As New NewsData.NewsDB
    Dim repos As New NewsRepository

    Dim _classId As Integer
    _classId = (From a In db.SchoolClasses Where a.VisitDateID = SchoolVisit.VisitDateID Select a.ClassID).Single()

    ViewData("VisitDate") = FormatDateTime(SchoolVisit.VisitDate, vbShortDate)

    ViewData("Staff") = repos.GetStaff(_classId)
    ViewData("StockArticles") = From a In db.StockArticles Select a

    ViewData("Articles") = repos.GetArticles(_classId)

    Return View()
End Function

Function FrontPage(ByVal SchoolVisit As SchoolVisitDate) As ActionResult

    Dim repos As New NewsRepository
    Dim _VisitDateID As Integer

    _VisitDateID = SchoolVisit.VisitDateID

    ViewData("Editorial") = repos.GetEditorial(_VisitDateID)
    Return View()
End Function

Answer 1

Html.ActionLink can be of help

Answer 2

Here's what you have to do:

1. You should make the News view strongly typed for SchoolVisitDate.
2. Have a form that submits the strongly typed SchoolVisitDate stuff post back to controller
3. Add a Post method to your controller
4. Have that post method redirect to the FrontPage view.