Creating forms

Creating forms requires that you know your way around .NET MVC. So if you are familiar with adding view models, views and controllers you are ready to make your first form.

In this example we'll create a basic contact form contain name, email and message field.

Creating the view model

First, we're going to create the model for the contact form by adding a new class to the /Models folder. Let's call it ContactFormViewModel.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace MyFirstForm.Models
{
    public class ContactFormViewModel 
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Email { get; set; }
        public string Message { get; set; }
    }
}

Build your solution after adding the model.

Creating the view

Next, we add the view for the form to the /View/Partials folder. Because we've added the model and built the solution we can add it as a strongly typed view.

Name your view "ContactForm".

The view can be built with standard MVC helpers:

@model MyFirstForm.Models.ContactFormViewModel

@using(Html.BeginUmbracoForm("Submit", "ContactForm")) 
{
    <div>
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m=>m.Name)
    </div>
    <div>
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m=>m.Email)
    </div>
    <div>
        @Html.TextAreaFor(m=>m.Message)
    </div>
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" />
}

Adding the controller

Finally, we're going to add the controller. Add a controller to the /Controllers folder, name it ContactController and make sure to use an empty MVC controller as the template.

using MyFirstForm.Models;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web.Mvc;

namespace MyFirstForm.Controllers
{
    public class ContactFormController : SurfaceController
    {
        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Submit(ContactFormViewModel model)
        {
            if (!ModelState.IsValid)
                return CurrentUmbracoPage();

            // Work with form data here

            return RedirectToCurrentUmbracoPage();
        }
    }
}

You should note that the controller inherits "SurfaceController" and not from "Controller" as initially added to the file by Visual Studio.

If the model state is invalid, CurrentUmbracoPage() will send the user back to the form. If valid, you can work with the form data, e.g. sending an email to site admin and then RedirectToCurrentUmbracoPage();.

Adding the form to a template

You can add the form to a template by rendering the partial view:

@using MyFirstForm.Models;

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Partials/ContactForm.cshtml", new ContactFormViewModel());
}

Adding the form through the backoffice

To add the form to your site we'll make a macro. This also makes it possible to let editors add the form to a page using the rich text editor.

Creating a macro

Go to the Settings section and right-click the Partial Views Macro Files node. Choose "Create" and select New partial view macro. Name the macro Contact Form.

In the partial view, we're going to render our contact form using the view model we created earlier.

@inherits Umbraco.Web.Macros.PartialViewMacroPage

@using MyFirstForm.Models;

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Partials/ContactForm.cshtml", new ContactFormViewModel());
}

Adding the macro

The last thing to do before we can add the form to a page is to allow the Macro in a rich text editor. Expand the Macros node and select the Contact Form Macro. Check the boxes under Editor Settings.

Tip: If you don't see your new macro listed, right click Macros and select Reload

Now you can add the form to a page that has a rich text editor.

More information

• Surface Controllers
• Custom controllers
• Routing