How to update DIV in _Layout.cshtml with message after Ajax form is submitted?

Question

Currently I have a Razor View like this:

TotalPaymentsByMonthYear.cshtml

@model MyApp.Web.ViewModels.MyViewModel

@using (@Ajax.BeginForm("TotalPaymentsByMonthYear",
        new { reportName = "CreateTotalPaymentsByMonthYearChart" },
        new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "chartimage"}))
{    
    <div class="report">

    // MyViewModel fields and validation messages...

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

    </div>
}

<div id="chartimage">
@Html.Partial("ValidationSummary")
</div>

I then display a PartialView that has a @Html.ValidationSummary() in case of validation errors.

ReportController.cs

public PartialViewResult TotalPaymentsByMonthYear(MyViewModel model,
       string reportName)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        return PartialView("ValidationSummary", model);
    }

    model.ReportName = reportName;

    return PartialView("Chart", model);
}

What I'd like to do is: instead of displaying validation errors within this PartialView, I'm looking for a way of sending this validation error message to a DIV element that I have defined within the _Layout.cshtml file.

_Layout.cshtml

<div id="message">

</div>

@RenderBody()

I'd like to fill the content of this DIV asynchronously. Is this possible? How can I do that?

Answer 1

Personally I would throw Ajax.* helpers away and do it like this:

@model MyApp.Web.ViewModels.MyViewModel

<div id="message"></div>

@using (Html.BeginForm("TotalPaymentsByMonthYear", new { reportName = "CreateTotalPaymentsByMonthYearChart" }))
{
    ...
}

<div id="chartimage">
    @Html.Partial("ValidationSummary")
</div>

Then I would use a custom HTTP response header to indicate that an error occurred:

public ActionResult TotalPaymentsByMonthYear(
    MyViewModel model,
    string reportName
)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        Response.AppendHeader("error", "true");
        return PartialView("ValidationSummary", model);
    }
    model.ReportName = reportName;
    return PartialView("Chart", model);
}

and finally in a separate javascript file I would unobtrusively AJAXify this form and in the success callback based on the presence of this custom HTTP header I would inject the result in one part or another:

$('form').submit(function () {
    $.ajax({
        url: this.action,
        type: this.method,
        data: $(this).serialize(),
        success: function (result, textStatus, jqXHR) {
            var error = jqXHR.getResponseHeader('error');
            if (error != null) {
                $('#message').html(result);
            } else {
                $('#chartimage').html(result);
            }
        }
    });
    return false;
});