MVC3 Razor and the browser (IE9) back button issue - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I am developing a MVC 3 Razor app and I'm having issues when I click the back button in the browser. My application workflow:
Select a facility from a dropdown list
A WebGrid gets populated with a list of the facility's buildings.
Click an image to edit a building
Click the browser's back button and the dropdown list in step 1 appears without the CSS formatting. If I click F5 to refresh then everything resets and the CSS formatting is back.
I'm using VS2010 and the ASP.NET development server with IE9 as the default browser. I have added the OutputCache attribute to every ActionResult in the controller.
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]
Here's my link in the WebGrid built from a PartialView
grid.Column(header: "",
format: #<text><a href="#Url.Action("Edit", "BuildingModels", new { #id = item.FACInventoriesId })"><img src="#Url.Content("~/Content/images/edit.png")"
alt='Edit' title='Edit' border='0'/></a></text>)
How do I get a browser to show the WebGrid (step 2) when the back button is click from editing a building (step 4)? Also any ideas why the CSS formatting is missing when I click the back button?
Here's the Controller code:
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]
public ViewResult Index()
{
ViewBag.Systems = buildingsVM.GetSystemsList();
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]
public ActionResult GetFacilityDetails(int systemId, string facilityId)
{
try
{
ViewBag.Systems = buildingsVM.GetSystemsList();
var facility = buildingsVM.GetFacilityDetails(systemId, facilityId);
facility.Buildings = buildingsVM.GetFacilityBuildings(systemId, facilityId);
var bldgsHtml = ViewsUtility.RenderPartialViewToString(this, "_Buildings", facility.Buildings);
TempData["CurrentFacility"] = facility;
return Json(new { ok = true, facdata = facility, bldgs = bldgsHtml, message = "ok" });
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return Json(new { ok = false, message = ex.Message });
}
}
[HttpPost]
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]
public ActionResult GetSystemFacilities(int systemId)
{
try
{
var facilities = buildingsVM.GetFacilitesBySystemId(systemId);
return Json(new { ok = true, data = facilities, message = "ok" });
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return Json(new { ok = false, message = ex.Message });
}
}
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]
public ActionResult Edit(int id)
{
var facility = TempData["CurrentFacility"] as FacilityModel;
return View(buildingsVM.GetBuilding(id));
}
Code from Partial View:
#model IEnumerable<COPSPlanningWeb.Models.BuildingModel>
<!-- Current Buildings from partial view -->
#{
if (Model != null && Model.Count() > 0)
{
var grid = new WebGrid(rowsPerPage: 50, defaultSort: "BuildingNumber"); //ajaxUpdateContainerId: "tabs-2",
grid.Bind(Model, rowCount: Model.Count(), autoSortAndPage: false);
grid.Pager(WebGridPagerModes.All);
#grid.GetHtml(
tableStyle: "webgridDisplay",
alternatingRowStyle: "alt",
columns: grid.Columns(
//grid.Column(format: (item) => Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit", new { EmployeeID = item.EmployeeID, ContactID = item.ContactID })),
grid.Column("BuildingNumber", header: "Building Number", style: "webgridDisplayCenter"),
grid.Column("ConstructionDate", header: "Construction Date", format: #<text>#item.ConstructionDate.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy")</text>),
grid.Column("ExtSquareFeet", header: "Exterior Sq. Ft.", format: (item) => string.Format("{0:n0}", item.ExtSquareFeet)),
grid.Column("IntSquareFeet", header: "Interior Sq. Ft.", format: (item) => string.Format("{0:n0}", item.IntSquareFeet)),
grid.Column("IU_Avail", header: "IU Available"),
grid.Column("SpaceAvail", header: "Space Available"),
grid.Column("FixedAssetValue", header: "Fixed Asset Value", format: (item) => string.Format("{0:C}", item.FixedAssetValue)),
grid.Column("FixedEquipValue", header: "Fixed Equipment Value", format: (item) => string.Format("{0:C}", item.FixedEquipValue)),
grid.Column(header: "",
format: #<text><a href="#Url.Action("Edit", "BuildingModels", new { #id = item.FACInventoriesId })"><img src="#Url.Content("~/Content/images/edit.png")"
alt='Edit' title='Edit' border='0'/></a></text>),
grid.Column(header: "",
format: #<text><a href="#Url.Action("Delete", "BuildingModels", new { #id = item.FACInventoriesId })"><img src="#Url.Content("~/Content/images/trash.png")"
alt='Delete' title='Delete' border='0'/></a></text>)
))
}
}
Code from Edit view:
#model COPSPlanningWeb.Models.BuildingModel
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Add/Edit Inventory";
}
#using (Html.BeginForm()) {
#Html.ValidationSummary(true)
<table style="width: 100%;" class="display">
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.FacilityId)
#Html.HiddenFor(model => model.FACInventoriesId)
<tr>
<th colspan="2" style="text-align: left;">
Building Information - Edit Inventory
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Facility Name
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Building Number
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.BuildingNumber)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.BuildingNumber)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Construction Date
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.ConstructionDate, "DateTime")
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ConstructionDate)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Exterior Sq. Ft.
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.ExtSquareFeet)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ExtSquareFeet)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Interior Sq. Ft.
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.IntSquareFeet)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.IntSquareFeet)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
IU Available
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.IU_Avail)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.IU_Avail)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Space Available
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.SpaceAvail)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.SpaceAvail)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Fixed Asset Value
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.FixedAssetValue)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FixedAssetValue)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Fixed Equipment Value
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.FixedEquipValue)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FixedEquipValue)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Total Fixed Asset Value
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.TotalFixedAssetValue)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.TotalFixedAssetValue)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="fieldlabel">
Total Fixed Equipment Value
</td>
<td class="fielddata">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.TotalFixedEquipValue)
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.TotalFixedEquipValue)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<table class="display" style="text-align: center;">
<tr>
<td>
#Html.ActionLink("Add/Edit Spaces", "Index")
</td>
<td>
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" class="button" />
</td>
<td>
#Html.ActionLink("Back to Buildings List", "Index")
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
}
When I click the back button from the Edit view I expected to see the WebGrid again (building list), but instead I get the first view without any CSS formatting.
Thanks to Luis I was able to resolve the CSS formatting issue, but I'm still not seeing the WebGrid when I click the back button. I'm using JSON to populate the WebGrid could this be the problem? Should I use a form post after the item in the dropdown has been selected?

Answer 1

Something similar happened to me making an app for the intranet... but hey cheer up, at least your company uses IE9... I had to make miracles trying to make a MVC3 Razor app with JQuery work with IE7...
Ok now to what's important, I had a similar issue with the cache of IE, it appears that the cache of this browser works "differently" from the normal-new-age browsers, you could try this:
Press F12 and go to the tab Cache and check Always refresh from server
Then check if everything works as it should do, if it does, tell your network administrator to make a new policy for all the IE browsers that are going to use this new app you're making.
Also check this https://superuser.com/questions/81182/how-to-force-internet-explorer-ie-to-really-reload-the-page
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

You need to add the Location to the attribute to get this to work with IE9
[OutputCache(Location = OutputCacheLocation.ServerAndClient, NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "None")]