How to execute controller actions that return Views but keep the URL intact in ASP.NET MVC

Question

When I navigate to /Controller/Action in ASP.NET MVC, the action returns a View and the browser URL is updated. How could I keep the URL intact but return the requested View at the same time?

For example, /Home/Index would return the View for Index whereas /Home/SignUp would return a different View. I want to make sure after both calls, the URL stays the same.

In your words, and in web, "call" means requesting resource by specifying "url". There are no "both calls" if there's single url. You could use [Ajax](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming)) to request resources from server without updating page and url — archil, Oct 03 '12 at 08:40

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 03 '12 at 08:40

0

You could explicitly specify the view you want to return in the controller action:

return View("~/Views/SomeController/SomeView.cshtml");

answered Oct 03 '12 at 08:40

Darin Dimitrov

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I don't think that would execute the action method though. I think it would simply return the View. I'm setting ViewBag properties in the action. – Mark13426 Oct 03 '12 at 08:41
No, this will not execute the action. Since you will be returning a different view you could set the required ViewBag properties in this action. – Darin Dimitrov Oct 03 '12 at 08:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 03 '12 at 08:41

0

These would be GET calls and this behaviour is intrinsic.

If you want to stay on the same page or even have a single page application then you need to consider using ajax and http POST to get the different views you need to build up your page.

answered Oct 03 '12 at 08:41

dove

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

You can achieve that by performing several approaches:

1. Configure your route config

 routes.MapRoute(
                name: null,
                url: "Home/FirstMethod",
                defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "FirstMethod" }
            );

            routes.MapRoute(
                name: null,
                url: "Home/SecondMethod",
                defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "FirstMethod" }
            );

2. Using custom MVCTransferResult: How to simulate Server.Transfer in ASP.NET MVC?

3. You can specifiy view explictly, for example:

return View(viewName: "Contact");

How to execute controller actions that return Views but keep the URL intact in ASP.NET MVC

3 Answers3