How To Call An Mvc Action Using Only Javascript?

I have this Kendo UI dropdownlist with a select event that is handled by a JavaScript function. I need to call an action result from a controller that runs a LINQ query to populat

Solution 1:

see this post

var url = '@Url.Action("ViewAllPolicies","YourController")';
    $.ajax({ url: url, success: DataRetrieved, type: 'POST', dataType: 'json' });

in controller

public ActionResult ViewAllPolicies()
{
    //Should return json format
}

url – this is the URL where request is sent. In my case there is controller called contacts and it has action calles ListPartiesByNameStart(). This action method takes parameter nameStart (first letter of person or company). success – this is the JavaScript function that handles retrieved data. You can write there also anonymous function but I suggest you to use functions with names because otherwise your code may get messy when functions grow. type – this is the type of request. It is either GET or POST. I suggest you to use POST because GET requests in JSON format are forbidden by ASP.NET MVC by default (I will show you later how to turn on GET requests to JSON returning actions). dataType – this is the data format that is expected to be returned by server. If you don’t assign it to value then returned result is handled as string. If you set it to json then jQuery constructs you JavaScript object tree that corresponds to JSON retrieved from server.

Solution 2:

Instead of returning json, you can also return a PartialView and in the .done function grab an element and replace it with the results from the partial view. PartialView actions basically return a fragment of HTML, and so you can just stuff that anywhere you want on the page:

$.ajax({
        url: urlToPartialViewAction,
        type: 'POST',
        dataType: 'JSON',
        data: '123'
    })
    .done(function (result) {
       $('#someDivPlaceholder').replaceWith(result);        
    });

You could have something like a link or grey div and wire up to it's click event and then call this, the link might say "View Receipt" and when you click it you call an action that returns a partial view with the receipt, and so when they click it the div/link is replaced with the result. Kind of like the "View More Comments" links you see on social sites.

Note that you can't have a partial view by itself, it must be called through an action

public PartialViewResult _GetReceipt(string id)
{
   ReceiptViewModel vm = //query for receipt data
   return PartialView(vm);//render partial view and return html fragment
}

Solution 3:

Once the select function executes, you need to make an AJAX call back to your Controller. You can use jQuery.ajax() (a wrapper for the most common AJAX operations) in the select function,

function select(e) {
    var url = '@Url.Action("ViewAllPolicies", "PolicyController")';
    var selectedPolicy = $('#Options').val(); // The option selected

    $.ajax({
        url: url,
        type: 'POST',
        dataType: 'JSON',
        data: selectedPolicy
    })
    .done(function (data) {
        // Display the data back from you Controller
    });
}

You can look at the Kendo site for more info on how the DropDownList works.