Using Bootstrap dual listbox with ASP.NET MVC - asp.net

Question

I added the Bootstrap dual listbox plugin on my project and it's working fine, but how can I pass the contents of the selected listbox to my controller? It's already inside a form but if I try to get it through FormCollection it returns as null.
View:
<div class="form-group col-md-7" style="margin-left: -15px;">
<select style="display: none;" multiple="multiple" size="10" name="dualListbox" id="dualListbox" class="demo2">
#if (ViewData["Customers"] != null)
{
foreach (var item in ViewData["Customers"] as List<Testbox.Models.Customer>)
{
<option value="customer">#item.NAME #item.LName - #item.PHONE11</option>
}
}
</select>
</div>

Answer 1

Well you can do it as below:
I'll assume that your form id is demoform and below is how the post action method will look like:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult GetForm()
{
string values = Request.Form["dualListbox"];
//Form[key] will be 'name' property of your select box
//You will get values as comma ',' separated values like option 1,
//option 2, option 4 etc., and I hope you know how you can get each
//options by splitting the comma separated values.
......
......
}

Answer 2

Here is an example to your question. Maybe this will help people in the future.
The trick is in the JS.
Let's say you want to use Bootstrap Dual Listbox in conjuction with ASP.NET MVC 4 and Kendo framework.
We will use the Razor syntax and C#.
First, we write in the view the placeholder for the code. We will be linking a kendo control and the Bootstrap Dual Listbox
<script>
var urlGetCascadeMultiSelectBrandTypeByBrand = "#(Url.Action("GetCascadeMultiSelectBrandTypeByBrand", "DropDownList"))";
</script>
<div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 padding-0 ">
<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.BrandId)<br />
#(Html.Kendo().DropDownListFor(m => m.BrandId)
.DataSource(source =>
{
source.Read(read =>
{
read.Action("GetCascadeDdlBrandBySegment", "DropDownList")
.Data("filterSegments");
})
.ServerFiltering(true);
})
.DataTextField("BrandName")
.DataValueField("BrandId")
.Filter(FilterType.Contains)
.CascadeFrom("SegmentId")
.OptionLabel("Select brand")
.Events(evt => evt.Change("onBrandIdDdlChange"))
.HtmlAttributes(new { #style = "width: 100%;" }))
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.BrandId)
</div>
<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">
</div>
</div>
<div class="clear height10"></div>
<div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 padding-0 ">
<div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12">
#Html.LabelFor(m => m.BrandTypeIdList)<br />
#if (Model.IsEdit)
{
#Html.ListBoxFor(m => m.BrandTypeIdList, Html.GetBrandTypeByBrandIdSelectListItemsList(Model.BrandId))
}
else
{
#Html.ListBoxFor(m => m.BrandTypeIdList, new List<SelectListItem>())
}
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.BrandTypeIdList)
</div>
</div>
Then, we create the C# helper code to go with it.
public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetBrandTypeByBrandIdSelectListItemsList(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, int brandId)
{
using (var dbContext = new Entities())
{
return dbContext.BrandType.Where(x => x.Active == true && x.BrandId == brandId).Select(BrandTypeToDdlSelector).ToList();
}
}
public static Func<BrandType, SelectListItem> BrandTypeToDdlSelector
{
get
{
return (x => new SelectListItem()
{
Value = x.BrandTypeId.ToString(),
Text = x.Name
});
}
}
public JsonResult GetCascadeMultiSelectBrandTypeByBrand(int? brandId)
{
var brandTypesList = DbContext.BrandType.Where(p => p.Active == true);
if (brandId != null)
{
brandTypesList = brandTypesList.Where(p => p.BrandId == brandId);
}
return Json(brandTypesList.Select(x => new { BrandTypeId = x.BrandTypeId, BrandTypeName = x.Name }), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Then we create the JS code to manipulate the HTML at runtime and bind the selected values to the MVC model.
var brandTypeIdDualListbox = new Object();
$(document).ready(function ()
{
//we create the dual list control
brandTypeIdDualListbox = $('select[name="BrandTypeIdList"]').bootstrapDualListbox({
nonSelectedListLabel: 'Non-selected',
selectedListLabel: 'Selected',
preserveSelectionOnMove: 'moved',
moveOnSelect: false,
});
//we setup the change event for the control
$('select[name="BrandTypeIdList').on('change', function (args)
{
//we traverse every option
$("#BrandTypeIdList option").each(function (index,element)
{
//we check if the element has the `data-sortindex` attribute
if (!!$(element).attr('data-sortindex'))
$(element).attr('selected', 'selected');
else
$(element).removeAttr('selected');
});
})
});
function filterBrands()
{
var brandId = $("#BrandId").val();
if (brandId == "")
brandId = "-1";
return {
BrandId: brandId
};
}
function populateBrandTypeIdDualListbox()
{
$.getJSON(urlGetCascadeMultiSelectBrandTypeByBrand, filterBrands(), function (data)
{
var items;
$.each(data, function (i, item)
{
brandTypeIdDualListbox.append("<option value=" + item.BrandTypeId/*Value*/ + ">" + item.BrandTypeName/*Key or Text*/ + "</option>");
});
brandTypeIdDualListbox.trigger('bootstrapDualListbox.refresh', true); // we refresh the control
});
}
function onBrandIdDdlChange(evt)
{
var brandIdDropDownList = $("#BrandId").data("kendoDropDownList");
$('#BrandTypeIdList').empty();
brandTypeIdDualListbox.trigger('bootstrapDualListbox.refresh', true);
if ($("#BrandId").val() == "" || $("#BrandId").val() == "-1")
{
//if no value is selected we disable the control
$(".bootstrap-duallistbox-container").find("*").prop("disabled", true);
}
else
{
populateBrandTypeIdDualListbox();
$(".bootstrap-duallistbox-container").find("*").prop("disabled", false); // we enable the control
}
}