Parameters from view not getting to controller action method - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I'm implementing Troy Goode's PagedList in one of my views (ASP.NET MVC 3 Razor). The challenge I'm having is when I click on a page number link, the request is routed to my HttpGet method, which just returns the empty page (ready for input).
My View Model:
public class SearchViewModel
{
public SelectList IndustrySelectList { get; set; }
public IPagedList<KeyValuePair<string, SearchResult>> SearchResults { get; set; }
public PagingInfo PagingInfo { get; set; }
}
Controller:
[HttpGet]
public ViewResult Search(string searchTerm = "")
{
SearchViewModel vm = new SearchViewModel
{
IndustrySelectList = new SelectList(_Industries.AsEnumerable(), "IndustryId", "IndustryName"),
PagingInfo = new PagingInfo
{
CurrentPage = 1,
ItemsPerPage = 25,
TotalItems = 0
}
};
return View(vm);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Search(string[] industries, string searchTerm = "", int page = 1)
{
SearchViewModel vm = null;
_url = "http://localhost/MasterNode/masternode.cgi?zoom_query={" + searchTerm + "}&zoom_xml=1&zoom_page={startPage?}&zoom_per_page=1000";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
int pageSize = 5;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchTerm))
{
vm = new SearchViewModel
{
IndustrySelectList = new SelectList(_Industries.AsEnumerable(), "IndustryId", "IndustryName")
};
}
else
{
_request = new SearchRequest(SearchRequest.EnvironmentTypes.Development, "", _url, searchTerm, SearchRequest.SearchType.AllWords, 1000);
sb.Append(GetResults(_url));
_results = new Dictionary<string, SearchResult>();
ParseResults(sb);
GetDetailInformationForResults(searchTerm);
vm = new SearchViewModel
{
IndustrySelectList = new SelectList(_Industries.AsEnumerable(), "IndustryId", "IndustryName"),
SearchResults = _results.ToList<KeyValuePair<string, SearchResult>>().ToPagedList(1, 25),
PagingInfo = new PagingInfo
{
CurrentPage = page,
ItemsPerPage = pageSize,
TotalItems = _results.Count()
}
};
}
return View(vm);
}
View:
#model MultiView.OmniGuide.ViewModels.SearchViewModel
#using MultiView.OmniGuide.HtmlHelpers
#using PagedList
#using PagedList.Mvc
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Search";
}
<link href="/Content/PagedList.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
#using (Html.BeginForm("Search", "Home"))
{
#Html.HiddenFor(c => c.IndustrySelectList)
#Html.HiddenFor(c => c.PagingInfo)
#Html.HiddenFor(c => c.SearchResults)
<table width="70%">
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="background: #fff">
<input id="searchTerm" name="searchTerm" type="text" class="SearchBox" style="width: 450px" />
<input type="submit" class="SearchButton" value=" " />
</td>
</tr>
<tr align="left">
<td align="left" style="background: #fff">
#Html.ActionLink("MultiView corporate site", "Search")
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" align="center" style="width: 450px">
#{
Html.Telerik().PanelBar()
.Name("searchPanel")
.Items(title =>
{
title.Add()
.Text("Filter by Industry")
.Content(() =>
{
#Html.RenderPartial("_Industry", #Model);
});
})
.Render();
}
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr>
</table>
<br />
if (Model.SearchResults != null)
{
<table width="70%">
<tr>
<th>
Company Image
</th>
<th class="tableHeader">
Company Name Here
</th>
<th class="tableHeader">
Website
</th>
</tr>
#foreach (KeyValuePair<string, MultiView.OmniGuide.Models.SearchResult> itm in Model.SearchResults)
{
<tr>
<td align="left" style="width: 15%">
#itm.Value.DetailedInfo.LogoURL
</td>
<td align="left" style="width: 60%">
<p style="text-align: left">
#itm.Value.DetailedInfo.DescriptionAbbreviated
<br />
</p>
#Html.AnchorLink(itm.Value.FoundURL, itm.Value.FoundURL)
</td>
<td style="width: 25%">
#itm.Value.FoundURL
</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
#Html.PagedListPager((IPagedList)Model.SearchResults, page => Url.Action("Search", "Home", new { page }))
}
}
When text is supplied in the input box and the button is clicked, the requested is routed to the HttpPost method. In looking at the request.form values, all expected data but paging information is present.
?HttpContext.Request.Form.AllKeys
{string[5]}
[0]: "IndustrySelectList"
[1]: "PagingInfo"
[2]: "SearchResults"
[3]: "searchTerm"
[4]: "industries"
Any help with this would be very much appreciated!

Answer 1

By clicking the button you are submitting the form which is why it is doing the httppost. The next page link is hitting the httpget correctly but you are not passing it any information to so that it knows what to get. The get needs other information, like what page you are wanting.

Answer 2

The page number links fire a GET request, so you'll need to make sure that your GET action can handle the full search as well, so will need to get the page number and industries array - using defaults for when those parameters aren't available.
e.g.
[HttpGet]
public ViewResult Search(string searchTerm = "", int page = 1,
string industries = "")
{
//.....
}
You'll need to modify the pager link like this to pass industries to the get action.
#Html.PagedListPager((IPagedList)Model.SearchResults, page => Url.Action("Search", "Home", new { page, industries = string.Join(",", Model.IndustrySelectList.Where( x => x.Selected).Select( x => x.Text)) }))
It's not clear to me from your code where the post action is getting string[] industries from, or what it is doing with it, but you will need some way of passing this same this to your get action, probably as a single string that is comma separated. The example I've provided assumed you are taken it from the select list on the viewmodel