ASP.NET MVC: Access Data in Controller from another controller

Question

Please feel free to edit the title if it is misleading, since I am not sure if that's the correct way to ask.

I am new to ASP.NET MVC I am running into a seemly easy problem and having a hard time doing it.

What I am trying to do: I have two sets of scaffolds: View A, Controller A, Model B. and View B, Controller B, Model B.

Controller A looks like this:

public ActionResult LogIn(FormCollection formValues) { ModelA Model = new ModelA(); Model.EmailAddress = formValues["EmailAddress"]; } 

I want to pass this formValues["EmailAddress"] from controller A to controller B.

In controller B, I have:

public ActionResult Initiate(FormCollection formValues, string phone, string method) { var ModelB = new ModelB(); var ModelA = new ModelA(); ---> This is null. ModelB.Email = ModelA.EmailAddress --> This is null. var userId = ModelB.dosomething(ModelB.Email, phone, method); } 

Is there away of doing that?

Answer 1

If the logic of ModelA and ModelB are going to be intertwined, I would recommend creating a new ViewModel, View, and Controller:

ModelAB

public class AB { public ModelA ModelA { get; set; } public ModelB ModelB { get; set; } } 

ModelABController

public ActionResult LogInAndInitiate(FormCollection formValues, string phone, string method) { var ModelB = new ModelB(); var ModelA = new ModelA(); // passed in, so its not null! ModelA.EmailAddress = formValues["EmailAddress"]; ModelB.Email = ModelA.EmailAddress // passed in too! var userId = ModelB.dosomething(ModelB.Email, phone, method); } 

Answer 2

Save the Model in TempData in Controller A like this

ModelA Model = new ModelA(); Model.EmailAddress = formValues["EmailAddress"]; TempData["ModelA"]=Model; 

and Then You can Acces it in Controller B like this

ModelA modelA= TempData["ModelA"] as ModelA; 

However TempData has very short life and can not be used in subsequent requests to keep the TempData persistant for subsequent request you can use

TempData.Keep(); 

Answer 3

If the controller actions are completely unrelated (i.e., they do not call each other) you have two options:

1) Render the data to the client into a form and let the data be re-posted on the next request. This is of course only suitable for small amounts of data AND if you are sure it is neither sensitive nor a problem if the user tampers with the data.

2) Use sessions. This is what sessions are for, i.e., shopping cart contents, etc. You can opt to save this data in a database or have it in-memory in a session object only.

I wouldn't recommend using TempData for this, the idea behind TempData is to contain data which is useful for the very next request only. Think validation messages and that kind of data.