MVC3 Get Ajax Posted Values - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

in postback requests when i need posted values i do like this
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index()
{
//i need to get values in here not in action method argument
//i know this works but not like this --> ActionResult Index(string Name)
string Name = Request.Form["Name"];
}
but in ajax requests this does not work,,and i cant find where mvc store ajax posted values
Any Suggestions?

Answer 1

I'm a little late to the party, but I will offer an alternative that will allow you to access Request.Form with an Ajax post/form. This was tested in MVC 4 and jQuery 1.9.1.
If the controller's Request.Form is not populating for your Ajax post, it is likely because you are manually serializing and sending the data to the controller with a contentType of application/json (a common scenario).
Here is an jQuery.ajax example that will NOT populate Request.Form on the controller.
// JSON serialized form data.
var data = {"id" : "1234", "name" : "Dave"};
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: serviceUrl,
contentType: "application/json",
dataType: "json",
data: JSON.stringify(data || {}),
success: function () { }
});
Changing the contentType will cause the controller to process the post like a form submission.
// Form encoded data. See jQuery.serialize().
var data = "id=1234&name=Dave";
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: serviceUrl,
contentType: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8",
dataType: "json",
data: data,
success: function () { }
});
You can also leave contentType undefined as application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8 it is the jQuery default.
I would note that I only used $.ajax to better illustrate what is going on. You could also use $.post, though you will still need to send form encoded data

Answer 2

The ajax posted values won't appear in the request from collection however you can use the ValueProvider infrastructure in MVC to get the your Ajax posted value:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index()
{
Name = ValueProvider.GetValue("Name").AttemptedValue;
}
Or the Request.InputStream contains all the posted data what you can read and deserailize as you want:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index()
{
var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(Request.InputStream))
{
var data = (Dictionary<string,object>)serializer
.DeserializeObject(streamReader.ReadToEnd());
//assuming your posted data looks like this: '{"Name": "test"}'
string name = data["Name"].ToString();
}
}
But I highly recommend that you should not fight against the MVC infrastructure and recive the data as your action paratemer:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(string name)
{
}