ASP.Net MVC3 - Properly handle Ajax form submission on the server side

Question

I have a form that I would like to endow with wonderful Ajax-submission goodness

@using(Html.BeginForm()) {
  ...
}

I changed Html.BeginForm() to Ajax.BeginForm() but am not quite clear about what to do on the server side.

Previously, I used to do something like this:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult EditMyStuff(MyViewModel vm) {
  if(!ModelState.IsValid)
    return View(vm);

  // save stuff
  return RedirectToAction("Index");         
}

And this is stuff I want to retain if the client has javascript disabled but if the form is submitted via Ajax clearly this is not what I want - I want any errors to appear in the validation summary on error or an "Your changes have been saved" message on success.

What is the standard way of doing this?

Answer 1

You have to add an If clause for the Ajax Request

if (Request.IsAjaxRequest()) 
{
    // Return PartialView or Json
}
else 
{
    // Normal response
}