How do you handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework?

I've came across this 'problem' as well but found a rather logical solution by adding the name attribute. I couldn't recall having this problem in other languages.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#h-17.13.2

• ...
• If a form contains more than one submit button, only the activated submit button is successful.
• ...

Meaning the following code value attributes can be changed, localized, internationalized without the need for extra code checking strongly-typed resources files or constants.

<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="send" value="Send" />
<input type="submit" name="cancel" value="Cancel" />
<input type="submit" name="draft" value="Send as draft" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>`

On the receiving end you would only need to check if any of your known submit types isn't null

public ActionResult YourAction(YourModel model) {

    if(Request["send"] != null) {

        // we got a send

    }else if(Request["cancel"]) {

        // we got a cancel, but would you really want to post data for this?

    }else if(Request["draft"]) {

        // we got a draft

    }

}

If your browser supports the attribute formaction for input buttons (IE 10+, not sure about other browsers) then the following should work:

@using (Html.BeginForm()){
    //put form inputs here

<input id="sendBtn" value="Send" type="submit" formaction="@Url.Action("Name Of Send Action")" />

<input id="cancelBtn" value="Cancel" type="submit" formaction="@Url.Action("Name of Cancel Action") />

}

I don't like about ActionSelectName that IsValidName is called for every action method in controller, don't know why. I like solution where every button has different name based on what it does, but i don't like that u have to have as much parameters in action method as buttons in form. I created enum of all button types

public enum ButtonType
{
    Submit,
    Cancel,
    Delete
}

Instead of ActionSelectName, i use ActionFilter

public class MultipleButtonsAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        Type tButtonType = typeof(ButtonType);
        foreach (var key in filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Form.AllKeys)
        {
            if (Enum.IsDefined(tButtonType, key))
            {
                var pDesc = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.GetParameters()
                    .FirstOrDefault(x => x.ParameterType == tButtonType);
                filterContext.ActionParameters[pDesc.ParameterName] = Enum.Parse(tButtonType, key);

            }
        }
    }
}

Filter will find button name in form data, and if button name matches any button types defined in enum, it will find ButtonType paramater among action parameters

[MultipleButtons]
public ActionResult Manage(ButtonType buttonPressed, ManageViewModel model)
{
    if (button == ButtonType.Cancel)
    {
        return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
    }
    //and so on
    return View(model)
}

and in views i can use

<input type="submit" value="Button Cancel" name="@ButtonType.Cancel" />
<input type="submit" value="Button Submit" name="@ButtonType.Submit" />

this is the best way that i have found:

http://iwayneo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/aspnet-mvc-action-selector-with-list.html

Here is the code:

    /// <summary>
    /// ActionMethodSelector to enable submit buttons to execute specific action methods.
    /// </summary>
    public class AcceptParameterAttribute : ActionMethodSelectorAttribute
   {
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the value to use to inject the index into
        /// </summary>
       public string TargetArgument { get; set; }

       /// <summary>
       /// Gets or sets the value to use in submit button to identify which method to select. This must be unique in each controller.
       /// </summary>
       public string Action { get; set; }

       /// <summary>
       /// Gets or sets the regular expression to match the action.
       /// </summary>
       public string ActionRegex { get; set; }

       /// <summary>
       /// Determines whether the action method selection is valid for the specified controller context.
       /// </summary>
       /// <param name="controllerContext">The controller context.</param>
       /// <param name="methodInfo">Information about the action method.</param>
       /// <returns>true if the action method selection is valid for the specified controller context; otherwise, false.</returns>
       public override bool IsValidForRequest(ControllerContext controllerContext, MethodInfo methodInfo)
       {

           if (controllerContext == null)
           {
               throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext");
           }

           Func<NameValueCollection> formGetter;
           Func<NameValueCollection> queryStringGetter;

           ValidationUtility.GetUnvalidatedCollections(HttpContext.Current, out formGetter, out queryStringGetter);

           var form = formGetter();
           var queryString = queryStringGetter();

           var req = form.AllKeys.Any() ? form : queryString;

           if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ActionRegex))
           {
               foreach (var key in req.AllKeys.Where(k => k.StartsWith(Action, true, System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture)))
               {
                   if (key.Contains(":"))
                   {
                       if (key.Split(':').Count() == this.ActionRegex.Split(':').Count())
                       {
                           bool match = false;
                           for (int i = 0; i < key.Split(':').Count(); i++)
                           {
                               if (Regex.IsMatch(key.Split(':')[0], this.ActionRegex.Split(':')[0]))
                               {
                                   match = true;
                               }
                               else
                               {
                                   match = false;
                                   break;
                               }
                           }

                           if (match)
                           {
                               return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(req[key]);
                           }
                       }
                   }
                   else
                   {
                       if (Regex.IsMatch(key, this.Action + this.ActionRegex))
                       {
                           return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(req[key]);
                       }
                   }

               }
               return false;
           }
           else
           {
               return req.AllKeys.Contains(this.Action);
           }
       }
   }

Enjoy a code-smell-less multi submit button future.

thank you

Modified version of HttpParamActionAttribute method but with a bug fix for not causing an error on expired/invalid session postbacks. To see if this is a problem with your current site, open the your form in a window and just before you go to click Save or Publish, open a duplicate window, and logout. Now go back to your first window and try to submit your form using either button. For me I got an error so this change solves that problem for me. I omit a bunch of stuff for the sake of brevity but you should get the idea. The key parts are the inclusion of ActionName on the attribute and making sure the name passed in is the name of the View that shows the form

Attribute Class

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class HttpParamActionAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{
    private readonly string actionName;

    public HttpParamActionAttribute(string actionName)
    {
        this.actionName = actionName;
    }

    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        if (actionName.Equals(methodInfo.Name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            return true;

        if (!actionName.Equals(this.actionName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            return false;

        var request = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
        return request[methodInfo.Name] != null;
    }
}

Controller

[Authorize(Roles="CanAddContent")]
public ActionResult CreateContent(Guid contentOwnerId)
{
    var viewModel = new ContentViewModel
    {
        ContentOwnerId = contentOwnerId
        //populate rest of view model
    }
    return View("CreateContent", viewModel);
}

[Authorize(Roles="CanAddContent"), HttpPost, HttpParamAction("CreateContent"), ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult SaveDraft(ContentFormModel model)
{
    //Save as draft
    return RedirectToAction("CreateContent");
}

[Authorize(Roles="CanAddContent"), HttpPost, HttpParamAction("CreateContent"), ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Publish(ContentFormModel model)
{
    //publish content
    return RedirectToAction("CreateContent");
}

View

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("CreateContent", "MyController", new { contentOwnerId = Model.ContentOwnerId }))
{
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
    @Html.HiddenFor(x => x.ContentOwnerId)

    <!-- Rest of your form controls -->
    <input name="SaveDraft" type="submit" value="SaveDraft" />
    <input name="Publish" type="submit" value="Publish" />
}

Based on mkozicki answer I come up with a bit different solution. I still use ActionNameSelectorAttribute But I needed to handle two buttons 'Save' and 'Sync'. They do almost the same so I didn't want to have two actions.

attribute:

public class MultipleButtonActionAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{        
    private readonly List<string> AcceptedButtonNames;

    public MultipleButtonActionAttribute(params string[] acceptedButtonNames)
    {
        AcceptedButtonNames = acceptedButtonNames.ToList();
    }

    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {            
        foreach (var acceptedButtonName in AcceptedButtonNames)
        {
            var button = controllerContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue(acceptedButtonName);
            if (button == null)
            {
                continue;
            }                
            controllerContext.Controller.ControllerContext.RouteData.Values.Add("ButtonName", acceptedButtonName);
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

view

<input type="submit" value="Save" name="Save" />
<input type="submit" value="Save and Sync" name="Sync" />

controller

 [MultipleButtonAction("Save", "Sync")]
 public ActionResult Sync(OrgSynchronizationEditModel model)
 {
     var btn = this.RouteData.Values["ButtonName"];

I also want to point out that if actions do different things I would probably follow mkozicki post.

Just written a post about that: Multiple submit buttons with ASP.NET MVC:

Basically, instead of using ActionMethodSelectorAttribute, I am using ActionNameSelectorAttribute, which allows me to pretend the action name is whatever I want it to be. Fortunately, ActionNameSelectorAttribute does not just make me specify action name, instead I can choose whether the current action matches request.

So there is my class (btw I am not too fond of the name):

public class HttpParamActionAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute {
    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo) {
        if (actionName.Equals(methodInfo.Name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            return true;

        if (!actionName.Equals("Action", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            return false;

        var request = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
        return request[methodInfo.Name] != null;
    }
} 

To use just define a form like this:

<% using (Html.BeginForm("Action", "Post")) { %>
  <!— …form fields… -->
  <input type="submit" name="saveDraft" value="Save Draft" />
  <input type="submit" name="publish" value="Publish" />
<% } %> 

and controller with two methods

public class PostController : Controller {
    [HttpParamAction]
    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult SaveDraft(…) {
        //…
    }

    [HttpParamAction]
    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult Publish(…) {
        //…
    } 
}

As you see, the attribute does not require you to specify anything at all. Also, name of the buttons are translated directly to the method names. Additionally (I haven’t tried that) these should work as normal actions as well, so you can post to any of them directly.

This script allows to specify a data-form-action attribute which will work as the HTML5 formaction attribute in all browsers (in an unobtrusive way):

$(document).on('click', '[type="submit"][data-form-action]', function(event) {
    var $this = $(this),
    var formAction = $this.attr('data-form-action'),
    $form = $($this.closest('form'));
    $form.attr('action', formAction);             
});

The form containing the button will be posted to the URL specified in the data-form-action attribute:

<button type="submit" data-form-action="different/url">Submit</button>   

This requires jQuery 1.7. For previous versions you should use live() instead of on().

//model
    public class input_element
        {
         public string Btn { get; set; }
        }   

//views--submit btn can be input type also...
    @using (Html.BeginForm())
    {
            <button type="submit" name="btn" value="verify">
             Verify data</button>
            <button type="submit" name="btn" value="save">
             Save data</button>    
            <button type="submit" name="btn" value="redirect">
                 Redirect</button>
    }

//controller

    public ActionResult About()
        {
            ViewBag.Message = "Your app description page.";
            return View();
        }

        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult About(input_element model)
        {
                if (model.Btn == "verify")
                {
                // the Verify button was clicked
                }
                else if (model.Btn == "save")
                {
                // the Save button was clicked
                } 
                else if (model.Btn == "redirect")
                {
                // the Redirect button was clicked
                } 
                return View();
        }

I don't have enough rep to comment in the correct place, but I spent all day on this so want to share.

While trying to implement the "MultipleButtonAttribute" solution ValueProvider.GetValue(keyValue) would incorrectly come back null.

It turned out I was referencing System.Web.MVC version 3.0 when it should have been 4.0 (other assemblies are 4.0). I don't know why my project didn't upgrade correctly and I had no other obvious problems.

So if your ActionNameSelectorAttribute is not working... check that.

In View the code is:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    function SubmeterForm(id)
    {
        if (id=='btnOk')
            document.forms[0].submit(id);
        else
            document.forms[1].submit(id);
    }
</script>


<% Html.BeginForm("ObterNomeBotaoClicado/1", "Teste01", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input id="btnOk" type="button" value="Ok" onclick="javascript:SubmeterForm('btnOk')" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>
<% Html.BeginForm("ObterNomeBotaoClicado/2", "Teste01", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input id="btnCancelar" type="button" value="Cancelar" onclick="javascript:SubmeterForm('btnCancelar')" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

In Controller the code is:

public ActionResult ObterNomeBotaoClicado(string id)
{
    if (id=="1")
        btnOkFunction(...);
    else
        btnCancelarFunction(...);
    return View();
}

I've tried to make a synthesis of all solutions and created a [ButtenHandler] attribute that makes it easy to handle multiple buttons on a form.

I've described it on CodeProject Multiple parameterized (localizable) form buttons in ASP.NET MVC.

To handle the simple case of this button:

<button type="submit" name="AddDepartment">Add Department</button>

You'll have something like the following action method:

[ButtonHandler()]
public ActionResult AddDepartment(Company model)
{
    model.Departments.Add(new Department());
    return View(model);
}

Notice how the name of the button matches the name of the action method. The article also describes how to have buttons with values and buttons with indexes.

For each submit button just add:

$('#btnSelector').click(function () {

    $('form').attr('action', "/Your/Action/);
    $('form').submit();

});

My Solution was to use 2 asp panels:

<asp:Panel ID=”..” DefaultButton=”ID_OF_SHIPPING_SUBMIT_BUTTON”….></asp:Panel>

Here is what works best for me:

<input type="submit" value="Delete" name="onDelete" />
<input type="submit" value="Save" name="onSave" />


public ActionResult Practice(MyModel model, string onSave, string onDelete)
{
    if (onDelete != null)
    {
        // Delete the object
        ...
        return EmptyResult();
    }

    // Save the object
    ...
    return EmptyResult();
}

If you do not have restrictions on the use of HTML 5, you can use the <button> tag with formaction Attribute:

<form action="demo_form.asp" method="get">
   First name: <input type="text" name="fname" /><br />
   Last name: <input type="text" name="lname" /><br />
   <button type="submit">Submit</button><br />
   <button type="submit" formaction="demo_admin.asp">Submit as admin</button>
</form>

Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/html5/att_button_formaction.asp

My JQuery approach using an extension method:

public static MvcHtmlString SubmitButtonFor<TController>(this HtmlHelper helper, Expression<Action<TController>> action, string value) where TController : Controller
{
    RouteValueDictionary routingValues = Microsoft.Web.Mvc.Internal.ExpressionHelper.GetRouteValuesFromExpression(action);

    var onclick = string.Format("$('form').first().attr('action', '/{0}')", string.Join("/", routingValues.Values.ToArray().Where(x => x != null).Select(x => x.ToString()).ToArray()));
    var html = "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"" + value + "\" onclick=\"" + onclick + "\" />";

    return MvcHtmlString.Create(html);
}

You can use it like this:

@(Html.SubmitButtonFor<FooController>(c => c.Save(null), "Save"))

And it renders like this:

<input type="submit" value="Save" onclick="$('form').first().attr('action', '/Foo/Save')" >

Here's an extension method I wrote to handle multiple image and/or text buttons.

Here's the HTML for an image button:

<input id="btnJoin" name="Join" src="/content/images/buttons/btnJoin.png" 
       type="image">

or for a text submit button :

<input type="submit" class="ui-button green" name="Submit_Join" value="Add to cart"  />
<input type="submit" class="ui-button red" name="Submit_Skip" value="Not today"  />

Here is the extension method you call from the controller with form.GetSubmitButtonName(). For image buttons it looks for a form parameter with .x (which indicates an image button was clicked) and extracts the name. For regular input buttons it looks for a name beginning with Submit_ and extracts the command from afterwards. Because I'm abstracting away the logic of determining the 'command' you can switch between image + text buttons on the client without changing the server side code.

public static class FormCollectionExtensions
{
    public static string GetSubmitButtonName(this FormCollection formCollection)
    {
        return GetSubmitButtonName(formCollection, true);
    }

    public static string GetSubmitButtonName(this FormCollection formCollection, bool throwOnError)
    {
        var imageButton = formCollection.Keys.OfType<string>().Where(x => x.EndsWith(".x")).SingleOrDefault();
        var textButton = formCollection.Keys.OfType<string>().Where(x => x.StartsWith("Submit_")).SingleOrDefault();

        if (textButton != null)
        {
            return textButton.Substring("Submit_".Length);
        }

        // we got something like AddToCart.x
        if (imageButton != null)
        {
            return imageButton.Substring(0, imageButton.Length - 2);
        }

        if (throwOnError)
        {
            throw new ApplicationException("No button found");
        }
        else
        {
            return null;
        }
    }
}

Note: For text buttons you have to prefix the name with Submit_. I prefer this way becuase it means you can change the text (display) value without having to change the code. Unlike SELECT elements, an INPUT button has only a 'value' and no separate 'text' attribute. My buttons say different things under different contexts - but map to the same 'command'. I much prefer extracting the name this way than having to code for == "Add to cart".

Give your submit buttons a name, and then inspect the submitted value in your controller method:

<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="Send" />
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

posting to

public class MyController : Controller {
    public ActionResult MyAction(string submitButton) {
        switch(submitButton) {
            case "Send":
                // delegate sending to another controller action
                return(Send());
            case "Cancel":
                // call another action to perform the cancellation
                return(Cancel());
            default:
                // If they've submitted the form without a submitButton, 
                // just return the view again.
                return(View());
        }
    }

    private ActionResult Cancel() {
        // process the cancellation request here.
        return(View("Cancelled"));
    }

    private ActionResult Send() {
        // perform the actual send operation here.
        return(View("SendConfirmed"));
    }

}

EDIT:

To extend this approach to work with localized sites, isolate your messages somewhere else (e.g. compiling a resource file to a strongly-typed resource class)

Then modify the code so it works like:

<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="<%= Html.Encode(Resources.Messages.Send)%>" />
<input type="submit" name="submitButton" value="<%=Html.Encode(Resources.Messages.Cancel)%>" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

and your controller should look like this:

// Note that the localized resources aren't constants, so 
// we can't use a switch statement.

if (submitButton == Resources.Messages.Send) { 
    // delegate sending to another controller action
    return(Send());

} else if (submitButton == Resources.Messages.Cancel) {
     // call another action to perform the cancellation
     return(Cancel());
}

I would suggest interested parties have a look at a solution i think is very elegant here >> http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2009/11/26/Supporting-multiple-submit-buttons-on-an-ASPNET-MVC-view.aspx

In case the link dissapears its using the MultiButton attribute applied to a controller action to indicate which button click that action should relate to.

This is the technique I'd use and I don't see it here yet. The link (posted by Saajid Ismail ) that inspires this solution is http://weblogs.asp.net/dfindley/archive/2009/05/31/asp-net-mvc-multiple-buttons-in-the-same-form.aspx). It adapts Dylan Beattie's answer to do localization without any problems.

In the View:

<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<button name="button" value="send"><%: Resources.Messages.Send %></button>
<button name="button" value="cancel"><%: Resources.Messages.Cancel %></button>
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

In the Controller:

public class MyController : Controller 
{
    public ActionResult MyAction(string button)
    {
         switch(button)
         {
             case "send":
                 this.DoSend();
                 break;
             case "cancel":
                 this.DoCancel();
                 break;
         }
    }
}

You could write:

<% Html.BeginForm("MyAction", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Send" />
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

And then in the page check if the name == "Send" or name == "Cancel"...

David Findley writes about 3 different options you have for doing this, on his ASP.Net weblog.

Read the article multiple buttons in the same form to see his solutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. IMHO he provides a very elegant solution which makes use of attributes that you decorate your action with.

Eilon suggests you can do it like this:

If you have more than one button you can distinguish between them by giving each button a name:

<input type="submit" name="SaveButton" value="Save data" />
<input type="submit" name="CancelButton" value="Cancel and go back to main page" />

In your controller action method you can add parameters named after the HTML input tag names:

public ActionResult DoSomeStuff(string saveButton, string
cancelButton, ... other parameters ...)
{ ... }

If any value gets posted to one of those parameters, that means that button was the one that got clicked. The web browser will only post a value for the one button that got clicked. All other values will be null.

if (saveButton != null) { /* do save logic */ }
if (cancelButton != null) { /* do cancel logic */ }

I like this method as it does not rely on the value property of the submit buttons which is more likely to change than the assigned names and doesn't require javascript to be enabled

See: http://forums.asp.net/p/1369617/2865166.aspx#2865166

You can check the name in the action as has been mentioned, but you might consider whether or not this is good design. It is a good idea to consider the responsibility of the action and not couple this design too much to UI aspects like button names. So consider using 2 forms and 2 actions:

<% Html.BeginForm("Send", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Send" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

<% Html.BeginForm("Cancel", "MyController", FormMethod.Post); %>
<input type="submit" name="button" value="Cancel" />
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

Also, in the case of "Cancel", you are usually just not processing the form and are going to a new URL. In this case you do not need to submit the form at all and just need a link:

<%=Html.ActionLink("Cancel", "List", "MyController") %>

You should be able to name the buttons and give them a value; then map this name as an argument to the action. Alternatively, use 2 separate action-links or 2 forms.