Pass complex object with redirect in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

Hi,

I have a action that looks like this :

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
        public ActionResult Register(AdRegister adRegister         


        

Answer 1

One possibility would be to pass the simple properties in the query string:

return RedirectToAction(
    "Validate", 
    new { 
        foo = adRegister.Foo, 
        bar = adRegister.Bar, 
        ... and so on for all the properties you want to send
    }
);

Another possibility is to store it in TempData (for the lifetime of the redirect) or Session (for the lifetime of the ASP.NET session):

TempData["adRegister"] = adRegister;
return RedirectToAction("Validate");

and then retrieve it from TempData:

public ActionResult Validate()
{
    adRegister = TempData["adRegister"] as AdRegister;
    ...
}

Yet another possibility (and the one I would recommend you) is to persist this object in the POST method in your datastore:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Register(AdRegister adRegister, IEnumerable files)
{
    ...
    string id = Repository.Save(adRegister);
    return RedirectToAction("Validate", new { id = adRegister.Id });
}

and then fetch it from the data store after you redirect:

public ActionResult Validate(string id)
{
    AdRegister adRegister = Repository.Get(id);
    ...
}