How do you build a Single Page Interface in ASP.NET MVC? - ajax

I want to build a webapplication with a "Single Page Interface", using ASP.NET MVC.
I have searched if this was at least possible and I think the answer is: not by simple means (reading http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc507641.aspx#S2 second-last paragraph; that article is from May 2008, though).
I found other examples which implemented this by coding/hacking with jQuery. However, I'm looking for a clean solution, using standard .NET approaches, if possible.
What I want is precisely the same functionality when you create a new "MVC Web Application". However, instead of links to "/Home/About" which reloads the entire page, I want links to "#Home/About" which loads only the new part via AJAX.
The standard approach of calling templates (partial views) with Html.RenderPartial is exactly what I want, only then loading them in through AJAX-requests.
Of course, it might be that I can't use these templates that are rendered by the Master-page for some reason (maybe it's expecting to always be called in a certain context from a certain place or so). But maybe there's another clean solution for how to build your template-pages and fetching them from the Master-page.
Who has a nice solution for implementing such thing, a Single Page Interface?
PS: I'm developing in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with MVC 1.0 installed, in C#
[edit]
Below I read that working with the templates is possible and that jQuery looks indeed like inevitable, so I tested it.
The following code transforms regular links created by Html.ActionLink into anchor-links (with #) to contain history, and then fetch the page via AJAX and only injecting the html-part I'm interested in (i.e. the partial page inside div#partialView):
$("a").each(function() {
$(this).click(function() {
$("div#partialView").load($(this).attr("href") + " div#partialView");
location.hash = $(this).attr("href");
return false;
});
});
These links also allow for graceful degredation.
But what I have left now, is still fetching the whole page instead of only the partial page. Altering the controller didn't help; it still provided me html of the whole page, with all of these statements:
public ActionResult About()
{
return View();
return View("About");
return PartialView();
return PartialView("About");
}
How could I only return the content of the part I'm interested in (i.e. the contents of Home/About.aspx)?
What I'd like is POSTing a value with AJAX (e.g. "requesttype=ajax") so that my controller knows the page is fetched via AJAX and only returns the partial page; otherwise it will return the whole page (i.e. when you visit /Home/About instead of #Home/About).
Is a good practice to alter Global.asax.cs maybe, to create a new routing schema for AJAX-calls, which will only return partial pages? (I haven't looked into this much, yet.)
[edit2]
Robert Koritnik was right: I also needed an About.ascx page (UserControl) with only the small HTML-content of that page. The first line of About.aspx was linked with the Master-page via MasterPageFile="~/..../Site.master" which caused that all HTML was printed.
But to be able to execute the following in my controller:
public ActionResult About()
{
return Request.IsAjaxRequest() ? (ActionResult)PartialView() : View();
}
I needed to alter the way a PartialView (.ascx file) and a View (.aspx) file was found, otherwise both methods would return the same page (About.aspx, ultimately resulting in an infinite loop).
After putting the following in Global.asax.cs, the correct pages will be returned with PartialView() and View():
protected void Application_Start()
{
foreach (WebFormViewEngine engine in ViewEngines.Engines.Where(c => c is WebFormViewEngine))
{
/* Normal search order:
new string[] { "~/Views/{1}/{0}.aspx",
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.ascx",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.aspx"
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.ascx"
};
*/
// PartialViews match with .ascx files
engine.PartialViewLocationFormats = new string[] { "~/Views/{1}/{0}.ascx", "~/Views/Shared/{0}.ascx" };
// Views match with .aspx files
engine.ViewLocationFormats = new string[] { "~/Views/{1}/{0}.aspx", "~/Views/Shared/{0}.aspx" };
}
RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}

Full view vs. Partial view
Seems like you've messed up something. If you create an About.aspx page with all the HTML needed to display the whole page it doesn't really matter if you say
return PartialView('About');
The view still returns all the HTML that's written in it.
You should create a separate About.ascx that will only have the content of the page itself without the header and other stuff that's part of the whole page.
Your original page About.aspx will have something like this in its content (to avoid repeating writing the same content twice):
<%= Html.RenderPartial("About") %>
And you can have two controller actions. One that returns a regular view and one that returns a partial view:
return View("About"); // returns About.aspx that holds the content of the About.ascx as well
return PartialView("About"); // only returns the partial About.ascx
Regarding routes in Global.asax
Instead of writing separate routes for Ajax calls you'd rather write an action filter that will work similar as AcceptVerbsAttribute action filter. This way your requests from the client would stay the same (and thus preventing the user from manually requesting wrong stuff), but depending on the request type the correct controller action will get executed.

Well, you can load Partial View through AJAX request. In example, I'll use jquery to make an ajax call.
These could be the action in controller (named HomeController):
public ActionResult About()
{
//Do some logic...
//AboutView is the name of your partial view
return View("AboutView");
}
JQuery ajax call to place the retured html in place you want:
var resultDiv = $('#contentDIV');
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/Home/About",
success: function(responseHTML) {
resultDiv.replaceWith(responseHTML);
}
});
[edit-question is updated]
It is possible to do exactly what you want. First controller action can give you back the partial view, so mine "AboutView" could have been something like this:
<table>
<tr>
<th>
Column1Header
</th>
<th>
Column2Header
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
...
</td>
<td>
...
</td>
</tr>
and this HTML is exactly what are you going to have in responseHTML on success handler in jquery ajax method.
Second, you can distinguish in controller action if the request is an ajax request:
public ActionResult About()
{
//partial AboutView is returned if request is ajax
if (Request.IsAjaxRequest())
return View("AboutView");
else //else it will be the default view (page) for this action: "About"
return View();
}

We've got a site that does exactly this, and you really want to use the jQuery route here--alot easier to implement in the long run. And you can easily make it gracefully degrade for users who don't have javascript enabled--like google.

it isn't all that clear what are you asking for, is it for a complete example or for some specific functionality? You should be able to do this without JQuery for simple scenarios, you can use the Ajax view helpers like the ActionLink method. Also, I don't really understand what is your issue with RenderPartial, but maybe you're looking for something like RenderAction from ASP.NET MVC Futures.

ASP.NET MVC 4 (now in beta) adds support for Single Page Applications in MVC.
http://www.asp.net/single-page-application
UPDATE:
...and they removed it from the MVC 4 RC
UPDATE:
...and it is back with the 2012 Fall update

Related

Is it OK to use AJAX to POST to a Razor page model from another page? (Example)

I try to learn web development, and tested to see if I could use only the POST-side of a Razor page/model for an AJAX-script to upload a file via another razor page and at the same time not treat the "FileUpload"-page as a page.
I will cut down the code, just to show what I mean:
Index.cshtml
#* return false, to prevent rendering of FileUpload.cshtml *#
<form asp-page="./FileUpload" enctype="multipart/form-data"
onsubmit="Uploader(this);return false;" method="post">
...
<script>
async function Uploader(element) {
var result = ...
try {
const response = await fetch(element.action, {
method: 'POST',
body: formData
}).then(response => response.json())
.then(data => ...
FileUpload.cshtml.cs
// Another code checks the file and adds errors to ModelState
public async Task<IActionResult> OnPostAsync()
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
...
Example response in Index.cshtml after posting:
{"file":["File type is not allowed or the signature don't match the extenstion"]}
This works, but I wonder if it is acceptable to do this, or if there are any consequences regarding security, performance, if it is a bad/wrong way of doing it, etc?
Thanks for your time and help.
The primary purpose behind having Razor Pages as endpoints is to generate HTML. If you don't have a requirement for HTML, you should really put your upload handler in a controller, especially if the upload handler is intended to be called from multiple locations in your application.
As to the security question, you should take the same precautions with handling file upload regardless how you create the endpoint that accepts them. There is unlikely to be any significant difference in performance between a Razor page handler and a controller action.

Using Razor Pages coredotnet how can I load a partial view via ajax

In using Razor pages, it is simple to use partial using #Html.Partial(..).
However, when a drop down changes, I want to refresh part of the view - the part rendered by the partial view.
I have searched lots, and found answers such as: https://github.com/aspnet/Razor/issues/2073 where they say partials are meant for code behind.
Is there a reasonable workaround such that I can re-render a subset of the view which is defined in a partial view? What is the best practice way of achieving this?
Yes,
Have an action method that can be called to reload just the partial view:
public ActionResult Reload()
{
return PartialView("NameOfPartialView");
}
Get it from the client (I'll use jQuery):
$.ajax({
type: "post",
url: "Reload",
data: {},
success: function(d) {
//d is the HTML content returned from the Action Method
$("#parentelementaroundinnerdata").html(d);
}
});
Returning the partial view from the action method returns an HTML string, and that can be injected into the page using a parent element to replace its contents with the update. That means when rendering the original, have the setup as the following:
<div id="parentelementaroundinnerdata">
#Html.Partial("NameOfPartialView")
</div>
You can use the same partial from an AJAX request and for loading an initial result - sometimes you have to be careful within the partial on what is going on because of that though...

Asp MVC AjaxExtensions, call from controller

I'm sure this is simple but I'm struggling to find it
Inside a controller you can do something like this:
public ActionResult MyAction()
{
string url = Url.Action(action, controller),
// do something with the url
}
What's the Ajax equivalent? i.e. where you would call Ajax.ActionLink in a View whats the equivalent for the controller?
Elaboration-
I have a master/detail arrangement with a grid and some input elements. You can click on select/delete in the grid to amend or delete the line.
The grid is a Kendo UI grid, the view is rendered via:
a partial view to render the input elements
creating a json object, i.e.
#{
var jsLines = #Html.Raw(Json.Encode(Model.Lines));
}
Binding the Kendo grid to this json
From within the grid I want to hit on select and call an Ajax method to update the partial view with the form details
thanks
You can use Url.Action from the razor view. Something like :
$.ajax({
url: '#Url.Action("Action", "Controller")',
...
I'm not at all convinced that this is the right way to go but it's always good to have options.
Ajax.ActionLink seems to be the same as Url.Action but with a few attributes thrown in. So you can use this:
return string.Format("<a data-ajax='true' data-ajax-mode='replace'
data-ajax-update='{2}' href=\"{0}\">{1}</a>",
Url.Action(action, controller, routeValues),
text,
"formContainerSelectSection");
to update this:
<div id="formContainerSelectSection">
... stuff to be replaced via ajax
</div>
I accept, especially after the discussion with NicoD, that there are other and probably easier ways to do this, in particular this is creating a link in the controller, that's the Views job, but the original question was about how to do this

Fanycbox 1.3.4 ajax issue with ASP.NET MVC

I'm using Fancybox 1.3.4 with ASP.NET MVC 3.
I have following link :
<a id="various" href="Like/List/#feed.Id" class="petlikeCount liked">#feed.LikeCount</a>
and also jquery :
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#various").fancybox({
type: 'ajax'
});
});
</script>
Controller action in Like controller :
public JsonResult List(int id)
{
return Json("success", JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
My problem is that Like/List is never called (checked with the breakpoint) and fancybox just appears and show content of "parent" page....
I also tried with iframe content returning pure html back, but I'm getting same strange behavior as above.
Thank you in advance!
I'd recommend you using HTML helpers instead of hardcoding anchors:
#Html.ActionLink(
feed.LikeCount,
"List",
"Like",
new { id = feed.Id },
new { id = "various", #class = "petlikeCount liked" }
)
Another thing that you should make sure is that the feed.Id is actually an integer variable so that when the List action is invoked it is correctly passed this id.
So your url should look something like this: /List/Like/123. And then assuming tat you have kept the default route and haven't messed up with some custom routes, the List action should be called and passed the correct id as argument.
Also I would very strongly recommend you using a javascript debugging tool in your browser such as FireBug in which you will be able to see any potential errors with your scripts as well as the actual AJAX requests being sent which will allow you to more easily debug such problems.

jQuery Mobile/MVC: Getting the browser URL to change with RedirectToAction

My first post...
When I use RedirectToAction the url in the browser doesn't change. How can I achieve this?
I'm switching over to ASP.NET MVC 3.0 (also using jQuery Mobile) after 10+ years using web forms. I'm about 8 weeks into it, and after several books and scouring Google for an answer, I'm coming up dry.
I have a single route defined in Global.asax:
routes.MapRoute(
"Routes",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Shopping", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
I have a ShoppingController with these actions:
public ActionResult Cart() {...}
public ActionResult Products(string externalId) {...}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Products(List<ProductModel> productModels)
{
// do stuff
return RedirectToAction("Cart");
}
The url when I do a get and post (with the post having the RedirectToAction) is always:
/Shopping/Products?ExternalId=GenAdmin
After the post and RedirectToAction I want the url in the browser to change to:
/Shopping/Cart
I've tried Redirect, and RedirectToRoute but get the same results.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
[Update]
I found that jQuery Mobile AJAX posts are the culprit here. If I turn off jQuery Mobile's AJAX it works.
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.4.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// do not handle links via ajax by default
$(document).bind("mobileinit", function () { $.mobile.ajaxEnabled = false; });
</script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://code.jquery.com/mobile/1.0rc2/jquery.mobile-1.0rc2.min.css" />
The ordering of the above scripts is important. I had to include the script to jQuery first, then include the script to disable jQuery Mobile's use of AJAX and then include the script to jQuery Mobile.
I'd still like to find a way to use AJAX and have the url update properly. Or at the least be able to call jQuery Mobile's "loading" message (or bake my own).
I think I've found an answer. Buried deep in the jQuery Mobile documentation, there is information about setting the data-url on the div with data-role="page". When I do this, I get the nice jQuery Mobile AJAX stuff (page loading message, page transitions) AND I get the url in the browser updated correctly.
Essentially, this is how I'm doing it...
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Products(...)
{
// ... add products to cart
TempData["DataUrl"] = "data-url=\"/Cart\"";
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Cart");
}
Then on my layout page I have this....
<div data-role="page" data-theme="c" #TempData["DataUrl"]>
On my HttpPost actions I now set the TempData["DataUrl"] so for those pages it gets set and is populated on the layout page. "Get" actions don't set the TempData["DataUrl"] so it doesn't get populated on the layout page in those situtations.
The only thing that doesn't quite work with this, is when you right-click... view source... in the browser, the html isn't always for the page you are on, which isn't unusual for AJAX.
Not sure if it is still actual, but in my case I wrote following helper method
public static IHtmlString GetPageUrl<TModel>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, ViewContext viewContext)
{
StringBuilder urlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
urlBuilder.Append("data-url='");
urlBuilder.Append(viewContext.HttpContext.Request.Url.GetComponents(UriComponents.PathAndQuery, UriFormat.UriEscaped));
urlBuilder.Append("'");
return htmlHelper.Raw(urlBuilder.ToString());
}
And then use it as follows:
<div data-role="page" data-theme="d" #Html.GetPageUrl(ViewContext) >
This way I don't need for every redirect action store a TempData. Worked for me fine both for Redirect and RedirectToAction. This would not work properly in case if you use method "View()" inside controller and return different view name, which will change UI, but will retain url.
Hope it helps
Artem
David, this was a big help to me. I just wanted to add that in my case I had to use the following format to get the Url to display in the correct form as my other url's:
TempData["DataUrl"] = "data-url=/appName/controller/action";
return RedirectToAction("action", "controller");
As a side note, I also found that when assigning the value to TempData["DataUrl"] I was able to leave out the escaped quotes and enter it exactly as above and it seems to be working fine for me. Thanks again for your help.
There is an issue on github
https://github.com/jquery/jquery-mobile/issues/1571
It has a nice solution without the need of TempData

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