MVC - Using Ajax to render partial view - ajax

Question

I have this markup in an MVC app.
<div id="ingredientlistdiv">
<% Recipe recipe = (Recipe)Model; %>
<% Html.RenderPartial("IngredientsListControl", recipe.Ingredients); %>
</div>
<div id="ingrediententrydiv" align="left">
<% using (Ajax.BeginForm("Add Ingredient", "Recipes/UpdateStep2", new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "ingredientlistdiv" }))
{ %>
<p>
<label for="Units">Units:</label><br />
<%= Html.TextBox("Units", 0)%>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Units", "*")%>
</p>
<p>
<label for="Measure">Measure:</label><br />
<%= Html.TextBox("Measure")%>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("Measure", "*")%>
</p>
<p>
<label for="IngredientName">Ingredient Name:</label><br />
<%= Html.TextBox("IngredientName")%>
<%= Html.ValidationMessage("IngredientName", "*")%>
</p>
<p>Save Ingredient</p>
<%= Html.Hidden("RecipeID", recipe.RecipeID.ToString())%>
<% } %>
</div>
When this runs the IngredientsListControl.ascx displayas a new page
in the browser and does not update the ingredientlistdiv.
This is my controller action
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult UpdateStep2(FormCollection form)
{
var factory = SessionFactoryCreator.Create();
using (var session = factory.OpenSession())
{
Recipe recipe = GetRecipe(session, Convert.ToInt32(form["RecipeID"]));
Ingredient ingredient = new Ingredient();
ingredient.UpdateFromForm(form);
ingredient.Validate(ViewData);
if (ViewData.ModelState.Count == 0)
{
recipe.Ingredients.Add(ingredient);
session.Save(recipe);
return PartialView("IngredientsListControl", recipe.Ingredients);
}
return Content("Error");
}
}
Am I doing the right thing on this line?
return PartialView("IngredientsListControl", recipe.Ingredients);
Is that how I render the control into the div so it does
not load new page.???
Malcolm

Answer 1

When you use this:
<a href="javascript:document.forms[0].submit()">
...you should be aware that it's not the same as
<input type="submit" />
It doesn't raise the onsubmit event, and MVC's AJAX eventhandler is not called.
To confirm this is the issue, add
<input type="submit" />
inside the form and try it out.
Finally, just call onsubmit() from your link
<a href="#" onclick="document.forms[0].onsubmit()">

Answer 2

Might be worth ensuring that you have correctly referenced the ajaxmvc and jquery scripts in your page (master page). If these are incorrect a new page will be displayed instead of the correct output in the target div.

Answer 3

RenderPartial takes an action name, not the name of the user control, so replace "IngredientsListControl" with "UpdateStep2", your action name.