create array in javascript with Html.action

Question

I'm trying to create an array of strings in javascript by calling a function in my MVC controller and passing back an array of strings. This pretty simply just isn't working and I'm not sure what i need to do to amend this. below you can see both my javascript and controller code. Any help is greatly appreciated

javascript:

var optionString = @Html.Action("PopulateDashboardDropdown", "Embed", new { Dashboards = Model[0][0].Dashboards });

Controller:

public string[] PopulateDashboardDropdown(ODataResponseListDashboard[] dashboards)
    {
        string email = "";
        //loop that finds the groupID assigned to the currently logged in user
        foreach (Claim claim in ClaimsPrincipal.Current.Claims)
        {
            if (claim.Type == "emails")
            {
                email = claim.Value;
                email = email.ToLower();
            }
        }
        string[] orgs = GetOrgs(email);
        string[] retVal = new string[orgs.Length];
        bool[] admin = new bool[orgs.Length];
        for (int i = 0; i < orgs.Length; i++)
        {
            admin[i] = isAdmin(orgs[i], email);
            retVal[i] = "";
        }

        //loop that creates a string to emulate the innerHtml of a dropdown selector based on the names of all dashboards in the workspace
        for (int i = 0; i < orgs.Length; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < dashboards[i].Value.Count; j++)
            {
                if (dashboards[i].Value.ElementAtOrDefault(j).DisplayName.Contains("Admin"))
                {
                    if (admin[i])
                    {
                        retVal[i] += "<option>" + dashboards[i].Value.ElementAtOrDefault(j).DisplayName + "</option>";
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    retVal[i] += "<option>" + dashboards[i].Value.ElementAtOrDefault(j).DisplayName + "</option>";
                }
            }
        }
        return retVal;
    }

Why are you using @Html.Action() for this? Why not just use ajax that calls a method that returns a JsonResult? — user3559349
– user3559349, Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 6:50
$.ajax calling JsonResult with success part should fine. Html.Action intended to use with action methods that returns entire view or partial view, not JSON. — Tetsuya Yamamoto
– Tetsuya Yamamoto, Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 6:52
there is one more way: Get the values as a list property in your model or in ViewBag. Then loop through in your cshtml and populate a javascript array: <script> var optionArray = []; @foreach (var i in Model.YourList) { @:optionArray.push(@i); } </script> — adiga
– adiga, Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 7:26

Ionut Ungureanu · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-06 07:19:10Z

1

Well, from isn't clear what is the error or what happens exactly but I see a couple of problems. I suggest the following in order to fix the code:

1) Change the result of your controller method to JsonResult:

public JsonResult PopulateDashboardDropdown(ODataResponseListDashboard[] dashboards)
{
    ...
    return this.Json(retVal);
}

2) Get your data via an ajax call (note: you need to insert the proper url in http format. The Http.Action/Razor will not work in javascript):

$.getJSON(myUrl, function (data) {  
   var optionString = data;       
   ...
});

answered Sep 6, 2017 at 7:19

Ionut Ungureanu

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1 Comment

David Parsonson Over a year ago

Thanks for this and the comments on my post I'm still somewhat fresh to mvc and had just been using action all over the place to call functions so nice to learn a bit more and improve things.

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