Saving multiple partial views from one main page - ajax

Question

Here is my requirement :
I am designing a page to add a vehicle to the database :
Normal vehicle information [Model - Inventory]
Some other features [Model - IList]
Here is my index.cshtml page
#model Model.ViewModel.VehicleViewModel
<div>
<div class='col-md-12'>
<div class="form-group">
<input id="mainFormSubmit" type="button" value="Save" class="btn btn-default" />
</div>
</div>
#{Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Shared/_InventoryPartial.cshtml", Model.InventoryVM);}
#{Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Shared/_StandardFeaturePartial.cshtml", Model.StandardFeatures);}
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('#mainFormSubmit').click(function () {
$('#InventoryForm').submit();
$("#StandardFeatureForm").submit();
});
</script>
This is my view model class
public class VehicleViewModel
{
public InventoryViewModel InventoryVM { get; set; }
public IList<StandardFeature> StandardFeatures { get; set; }
}
The Inventory partial view [_InventoryPartial.cshtml]
#model Model.ViewModel.InventoryViewModel
#{
var options = new AjaxOptions() { HttpMethod = "Post" };
}
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
#using (Ajax.BeginForm("InventorySave", "AddVehicle", options, new { id = "InventoryForm" }))
{
<fieldset>
<legend>Inventory Info</legend>
<div class='col-md-6'>
<!-- VIN input-->
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.VIN, new { #class = "col-md-4 control-label" })
<div class="col-md-7">
#Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.VIN, new { #class = "form-control", #placeholder = "VIN" })
</div>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
}
The standard feature partial view [_StandardFeaturePartial.cshtml]
==
#model IEnumerable<Model.DomainModel.StandardFeature>
#{
var options = new AjaxOptions() { HttpMethod = "Post" };
}
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
#using (Ajax.BeginForm("StandardFeatureSave", "AddVehicle", options, new { id = "StandardFeatureForm" }))
{
When I am clicking on index page SAVE button, only
$('#InventoryForm').submit();
$("#StandardFeatureForm").submit();
last one(StandardFeatureForm) is executing.
Please let me know if this process is correct, and what could be the reason of this issue.

Answer 1

You should not call the submit method twice. Depending of the browser you can face different issues :
the form submission causes the browser to navigate to the form action and the submission
of the first may prevent the submission of the second
The browser could detected there are two requests and discards the
first submit.
In your case it will be easier to wrap your two partial views inside a unique form.
#using (Ajax.BeginForm("InventorySave", "AddVehicle", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "InventoryForm" }))
{
#{Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Shared/_InventoryPartial.cshtml", Model.InventoryVM);}
#{Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Shared/_StandardFeaturePartial.cshtml", Model.StandardFeatures);}
}
However when the partial views render they are not generating the correct name attributes for the larger modelModel.ViewModel.VehicleViewModel you want to use :
public void InventorySave(VehicleViewModel vehicleViewModel) {}
In this case you should use EditorTempmlate instead of partial views. It's simple to do from your partial views and this post should help you :Post a form with multiple partial views
Basically, drag your partials to the folder ~/Shared/EditorTemplates/
and rename them to match the model name they are the editor templates
for.
Finally something like :
#model Model.ViewModel.VehicleViewModel
#using (Html.BeginForm("InventorySave", "AddVehicle", FormMethod.Post, new { id = "InventoryForm" }))
{
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.InventoryVM);
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.StandardFeatures});
}

Answer 2

The Ajax.BeginForm helper already has a submit event associated to it which creates an Ajax POST request. When you are manually submitting your form using $('#InventoryForm').submit();, you're calling both and the submit events which can have strange side effects.
There are a few ways around this. Here is one solution
Change your forms to a regular HTML form using the Html.BeingForm helper.
Amend your script to create ajax requests and use the form data
$('#InventoryForm').submit(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
$.post($(this).attr("action"), $(this).serialize(), function(r) {
//Do something
});
});
$('#StandardFeatureForm').submit(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
$.post($(this).attr("action"), $(this).serialize(), function(r) {
//Do something
});
});
Hope this helps