📓 Using Forms with MVC
In this lesson, we'll learn how to add forms to our virtual postcard application so anyone can create a custom postcard for their friends.
Integrating Forms​
Adding a New Route​
First, we'll add a new Form() route to contain our form:
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using FriendLetter.Models;
namespace FriendLetter.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : Controller
{
...
[Route("/form")]
public ActionResult Form() { return View(); }
}
}
When we navigate to localhost:5000/form, the code in this route will execute.
Creating a Form View​
In our Views/Home directory, we'll create a file called Form.cshtml and add the following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Create a Custom Postcard!</title>
<link
href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.2.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"
rel="stylesheet"
integrity="sha384-rbsA2VBKQhggwzxH7pPCaAqO46MgnOM80zW1RWuH61DGLwZJEdK2Kadq2F9CUG65"
crossorigin="anonymous">
<meta charset='utf-8'>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Fill in your name and your friend's name to create your custom postcard!</h1>
<form action="/postcard" method="post">
<label for="sender">Sender's Name</label>
<input id="sender" name="sender" type="text">
<label for="recipient">Recipient's Name</label>
<input id="recipient" name="recipient" type="text">
<button type="submit">Go!</button>
</form>
</body>
</html>
This form looks fairly similar to ones we've worked with in the past but there are some key differences.
Notice the
<form>tag includesaction="/postcard". This tells ASP.NET Core MVC where to submit the data provided through this form. This attribute must be set to the path of another route in our controller. That means if we use a route decorator, it will be set to the path we've specified in the decorator. We'll create a"/postcard"route soon.We create a
<label>and<input>for each piece of info the form collects.<input>s must have 3 attributes:name,id, andtype:The
idcan be anything as long as it's unique on this page. Generally, the value will be the same for bothnameandid.The
<input>tag has many different possible values for thetypeattribute. Examples include dates, colors, and numbers. This one is set to"text".
The
<label>tag provides the text to display next to the input box. It takes one attribute calledfor, which should match theidattribute of the corresponding<input>tag. For example, the<input>tag with attributeid="recipient"should have a<label>tag with the attributefor="recipient".The
<button>tag creates the button that submits the form. It has one attribute calledtype. This attribute must be set to"submit". Otherwise, the form won't work correctly.
Note that we haven't created the route that the new form will send it's data to. Let's do that next.
Dynamically Rendering Form Data​
Now that we have a form to submit data, we need to add a route that gathers the data, and a new view that displays the data.
Route​
Let's first add the code to retrieve the user's form input. We'll call this new route Postcard(). We need to make sure that the Postcard() route has a /postcard route decorator to handle this, because the route's path must match the form's action attribute. When they match, ASP.NET Core will automatically execute the code in this route when the form is submitted.
Our new route will look like this:
...
[Route("/postcard")]
public ActionResult Postcard(string recipient, string sender)
{
LetterVariable myLetterVariable = new LetterVariable();
myLetterVariable.Recipient = recipient;
myLetterVariable.Sender = sender;
return View(myLetterVariable);
}
...
Here we create a new Postcard() route. This time, the route's method takes arguments: a string for both recipient and sender.
Because we told our
<form>inForm.cshtmlto have anaction="/postcard", the route matching the/postcardpath is automatically invoked. That's ourPostcard()route.Our form has two
<input>s, one with aname="sender"attribute and another with aname="recipient"attribute. These are the parameters we pass into the route method. Note: the name of the parameters must match the value of thenameattribute on the form inputs. This must be an exact match or it will not work.This route can automatically access those values via the parameters we pass into the
Postcard()route method.
Next, let's create the view that will display the form data in a postcard.
View​
Since the route name is Postcard(), we need to create a view called Postcard.cshtml. The new view will look like our previous friend letter in Letter.cshtml, but this one will insert custom names gathered from our form.
We'll add the following code to the Postcard.cshtml:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>A Postcard For You!</title>
<link
href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.2.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"
rel="stylesheet"
integrity="sha384-rbsA2VBKQhggwzxH7pPCaAqO46MgnOM80zW1RWuH61DGLwZJEdK2Kadq2F9CUG65"
crossorigin="anonymous">
<meta charset='utf-8'>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello From Afar</h1>
<p>Dear @Model.Recipient,</p>
<p>How are you? I hope that you are having a nice weekend. I'm vacationing in the Iceland while I learn programming!</p>
<p>@Model.Recipient, you would not believe how cold it is here. I should have gone to Hawaii instead.</p>
<p>But I like programming a lot, so I've got that going for me.</p>
<p>Looking forward to seeing you soon. I'll bring you back a souvenir.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Travel Enthusiast @Model.Sender</p>
</body>
</html>
If we launch the application and visit localhost:5000/form, we'll see our form! If we fill it out and submit it, we'll automatically be taken to our letter at localhost:5000/postcard with custom sender and recipient names from our form.
That's the end of this walkthrough on creating a basic web application with ASP.NET Core MVC. Click the link below to check out the finished example project for the "Friend Letter" project.