Different action for different buttons from a single page in MVC

To post from different buttons on a single MVC page to different action methods, we need some extra code. We need to create an attribute class by inheriting ActionNameSelectorAttribute and override IsValidName method. We will use the button name to call any particular action on the basis of button name. It looks some thing very difficult but in reality it is more than easy.

Let's creat our attribute class:

public class HttpParameterActionAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{
    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        if (actionName.Equals(methodInfo.Name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            return true;

        var request = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
        return request[methodInfo.Name] != null;
    }
}

Now say we have two action method on the same controller with name "Save" and "SaveAndPublish". We want two buttons called "Save" and "Save and Publish" which will call the corresponding action methods. Create your both action method according to your requirements and add the code, we need to add the attribute on these methods "HttpParameterAction" see the code:

[HttpParameterAction]
public ActionResult Save(MyModel model)
{
    // ...
}

[HttpParameterAction]
public ActionResult SaveAndPublish(MyModel model)
{
    // ...
}

Now time to decorate our HTML

@using (@Html.BeginForm())
{
    -------------------------------
    -------------------------------
    -------------------------------
    <input type="submit" name="Save" value="Save" />
    <input type="submit" name="SaveAndPublish" value="Save and Publish" />
}

Note: I have not used any parameter in above html code, if you will use the action name in BeginForm it will give error:

The current request for action 'Save' on controller type 'MyController' 
is ambiguous between the following action methods:
System.Web.Mvc.ActionResult Save(MyApp.ViewModels.MyViewModel) 
                on type MyApp.Controllers.MyController
System.Web.Mvc.ActionResult SaveAndPublish(MyApp.ViewModels.MyViewModel) 
                on type MyApp.Controllers.MyController

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