How to call the view in Url.Action

Question

I have a GET method that returns json data from the web api. I have created a corresponding view, but its showing the json data instead of showing data on the view page. My code is as below:

[HttpGet]
    public List<Project.Entity.ViewModels.PassCatalog.LBFrontendIPConfig> ListofLBFronendIPConfig(string resourceGroupName, string loadBalancerName)
    {
        try
        {
            var token = HttpContext.Session.GetString("Token");
            var tenantid = HttpContext.Session.GetString("TenantId");

            var sessionId = HttpContext.Session.GetString("SessionId");
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(token) || !string.IsNullOrEmpty(tenantid))
            {
                var path = $"/api/PaasCatalog/GetLBFrontendIPConfigList?resourceGroupName=" + resourceGroupName + "&loadBalancerName=" + loadBalancerName;
                var response = _httpClient.SendRequestWithBearerTokenAsync(HttpMethod.Get, path, null, token, tenantid, _cancellationToken, sessionId).Result;
                if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
                    return null;
                var result = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
                if (result == null)
                    return null;
                var jsontemplates = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Project.Entity.ViewModels.PassCatalog.LBFrontendIPConfig>>(result);
                return jsontemplates;
            }
            else
            {
                RedirectToAction("SignOut", "Session");
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            _errorLogger.LogMessage(LogLevelInfo.Error, ex);
            return null;
        }
        return null;
    }

This is the way I have used Url.Action to call the View

<i onclick="location.href='@Url.Action("ListofLBFronendIPConfig", "PaasCatalog",  new {LoadBalancerName = item.Name, resourceGroupName = item.RGName})'" class="fa fa-expand @Model.ActionClass.Edit" style="color:green;font-size: 18px;" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="bottom" title="Scale Up/Down" data-original-title="Tooltip on bottom"></i>

what am I missing? Please help me. Thank you.

Answer 1

Your MVC actions should have a return value of ActionResult (or Task if you are using async) in the signature. so you menthod should be defined as ...

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult ListofLBFronendIPConfig(string resourceGroupName, string loadBalancerName)
{
    // . . . 
}

Then you need to change your return statements with the action method to use the provided View Result helper methods found on the MVC Controller class. For Example:

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult ListofLBFronendIPConfig( string resourceGroupName, string loadBalancerName )
{
    try
    {
        var token = HttpContext.Session.GetString( "Token" );
        var tenantid = HttpContext.Session.GetString( "TenantId" );

        var sessionId = HttpContext.Session.GetString( "SessionId" );
        if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty( token ) || !string.IsNullOrEmpty( tenantid ) )
        {
            var path = $"/api/PaasCatalog/GetLBFrontendIPConfigList?resourceGroupName=" + resourceGroupName + "&loadBalancerName=" + loadBalancerName;
            var response = _httpClient.SendRequestWithBearerTokenAsync( HttpMethod.Get, path, null, token, tenantid, _cancellationToken, sessionId ).Result;
            if ( !response.IsSuccessStatusCode )
                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(response.StatusCode);  //return a status code result that is not 200. I'm guessing on the property name for status code.

            var result = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
            if ( result == null )
                return View();  // this one could be lots of things... you could return a 404 (return new HttpNotFoundResult("what wasn't found")) or you could return a staus code for a Bad Request (400), or you could throw and exception.  I chose to return the view with no model object bound to it.

            var jsontemplates = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Project.Entity.ViewModels.PassCatalog.LBFrontendIPConfig>>( result );
            return View(jsontemplates);
        }
        else
        {
            // retrun the redirect result...don't just call it
            return RedirectToAction( "SignOut", "Session" );
        }
    }
    catch ( Exception ex )
    {
        _errorLogger.LogMessage( LogLevelInfo.Error, ex );
        // rethrow the exception (or throw something else, or return a status code of 500)
        throw;
    }
}

I changed all of your return statements. You would need a cshtml view named ListofLBFronendIPConfig.cshtml that knows how to make use of the json object you bound to it's model. Hope this helps.