Submit button not working as expected

Question

I have a form with a submit button on a registration page that will not work when pressed, have been at it for a while now? I put a break point on the creat method and it doesn't get called

This is the Creat Metod in the controller

   public ActionResult Create()
    {
        return View();
    }

    //
    // POST: /RegsterDetails/Create

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Create(User user )
    {
        if(ModelState.IsValid)
        try
        {
            db.Users.Add(user);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return RedirectToAction("RegisterStats", "RegisterStats");
        }
        catch(Exception)
        {
            return View();
        }
        return View(user);

This is The View

    @model Fitness_Friend.Web.Models.User

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "RegisterDetails";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}

<h2>RegisterDetails</h2>

@using (Html.BeginForm()) {
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    <fieldset>
        <legend>User</legend>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.FirstName)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FirstName)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.LastName)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.LastName)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.DOB)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.DOB)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.DOB)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Address)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Address)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Address)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Email)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Email)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Email)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Gender)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Gender)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Gender)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.UserName)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.UserName)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.UserName)
        </div>

        <p>
            <input type="Submit" name="Create" value="Register Details" />
        </p>
    </fieldset>
}

<div>
    @Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index","Home")
</div>

@section Scripts {
    @Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jqueryval")
}

Answer 1

I'm very late to this but I think I know why this Controller Method doesn't get called.

If a form is passing the data for a Model back to the controller, then the Model class needs to have a constructor which takes no parameters. I'm willing to bet that in the above example the class User does not have such a constructor.

Answer 2

I've duplicated this code as below:

Controller + Model (bad design don't do this):

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Create()
    {
        return View();
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Create(MyUser user)
    {
        // break point next line works
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
            try
            {
                //db.Users.Add(user);
                //db.SaveChanges();
                return RedirectToAction("RegisterStats", "RegisterStats");
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                return View();
            }
        return View(user);
    }

    public class MyUser
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
    }
}

With this view:

@model MvcApplication3.Controllers.HomeController.MyUser

@using (Html.BeginForm()) {
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
    @Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    <fieldset>
        <legend>User</legend>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.FirstName)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FirstName)
        </div>

        <div class="editor-label">
            @Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName)
        </div>
        <div class="editor-field">
            @Html.EditorFor(model => model.LastName)
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.LastName)
        </div>

        <p>
            <input type="Submit" name="Create" value="Register Details" />
        </p>
    </fieldset>
}

And it works without issue.

Answer 3

For some reason, your form is not hooking up to your action properly. In order to eliminate some of the possibilities for what is going on, I suggest that you actually specify what Action and Controller the form will use to post to.

@Html.BeginForm("CreateUser", "ControllerWithCreateUserMethod")
{
    //insert your HTML here.
    //submit button here
    <input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
}

Answer 4

In a HTML form, you need a submit button to post the data, like this

<input type="submit" value="Submit"/>

or

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

If you don't like those, you can choose something like this

<a onclick="$('#formId').submit();">Submit</a>

and of course you can optionally specify in form tag where the data is to be posted

@Html.BeginForm("Action", "Controller")
{
   ...
}