If you want to do this using a button click you can subscribe the to click event of the button in JS. In your JS, you can do an ajax post, which will post a JSON object (your VM) to your action:
Razor:
<input type="button" value="Detail" id="buttonId" />
JS:
$('#buttonId').click(function () { //On click of your button
var property1 = $('#property1Id').val(); //Get the values from the page you want to post
var property2 = $('#property2Id').val();
var JSONObject = { // Create JSON object to pass through AJAX
Property1: property1, //Make sure these names match the properties in VM
Property2: property2
};
$.ajax({ //Do an ajax post to the controller
type: 'POST',
url: './Controller/Action',
data: JSON.stringify(JSONObject),
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "json"
});
Another way to do this is submit the view model using a form.
@using (Html.BeginForm("ActionName", "ControllerName", FormMethod.Post))
{
@Html.AntiForgeryToken()
<div class="form-horizontal">
@Html.ValidationSummary(true, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
<div class="form-group">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.PropertyName1, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
<input type="text" id="PropertyName1" name="PropertyName1" class="form-control" />
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.PropertyName1, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.PropertyName2, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
@Html.EditorFor(model => model.PropertyName2, new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "form-control" } })
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.PropertyName2, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-offset-2 col-md-10">
<input type="submit" value="Button text" class="btn btn-primary" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
}