MVC Html.CheckBox and form submit issue

Question

Crazy issue with submitting of values in Html.Checkbox in ASP.NET MVC RC

Some of the values are just not come to Request.Params

At my form I have this line i

Answer 1

Without the need to ask database about the ids after form submitting/before saving (Stateless mode) I've produced such code:

    foreach (string key in Request.Form)
    {
        var checkbox = String.Empty;
        if (key.StartsWith("cb"))
        {
          checkbox = Request.Form["" + key];

          if (checkbox != "false")
          {
              int id = Convert.ToInt32(key.Remove(0, 2));
          }
        }
    }

Thanks you guys to help me work around this issue!

Answer 2

This is actually the way it should work according to specifications.

It has nothing to do with ASP.NET MVC, but when a check box is left unchecked it is not included in the POST collection.

You get two values because you have both a checkbox and an input with the same name (and the ones you have two values for are most likely the ones with checkboxes checked).

Edit: specifications from W3C

Answer 3

   <% using(Html.BeginForm("Retrieve", "Home")) %>//Retrieve is the name of the action while Home is the name of the controller
       <% { %>
    <%foreach (var app in newApps)              { %>  
  <tr> 
       <td><%=Html.CheckBox(""+app.ApplicationId )%></td>      

   </tr>  
<%} %>
 <input type"submit"/>
<% } %>

and in your controller

 List<app>=newApps; //Database bind
 for(int i=0; i<app.Count;i++)
 {

    var checkbox=Request.Form[""+app[i].ApplicationId];
    if(checkbox!="false")// if not false then true,false is returned
 }

the reason you check for false because the Html Checkbox helper does some kind of freaky thing for value true

True returns as:

it makes the string read "true, false"

so you may have thought it was two values but its just one and means true

False returns as:

it makes the string read "false"

Answer 4

I use this:

public struct EditedCheckboxValue
{
    public bool Current { get; private set; }

    public bool Previous { get; private set; }

    public bool Changed { get; private set; }

    public EditedCheckboxValue(System.Web.Mvc.FormCollection collection, string checkboxID) : this()
    {
        string[] values = collection[checkboxID].Split(new char[] { ',' });
        if (values.Length == 2)
        {   // checkbox value changed, Format: current,old
            Current = bool.Parse(values[0]);
            Previous = bool.Parse(values[1]);
            Changed = (Current != Previous);
        }
        else if (values.Length == 1)
        {
            Current = bool.Parse(values[0]);
            Previous = Current;
            Changed = false;
        }
        else
            throw new FormatException("invalid format for edited checkbox value in FormCollection");
    }
}

and then call it like this:

EditedCheckboxValue issomething = new EditedCheckboxValue(collection, "FieldName");
instance.IsSomething = issomething.Current;