MVC 3 StackOverflowException w/ @Html.Action()

Question

I've looked over a bunch of other reports of this, but mine seems to be behaving a bit differently. I am returning PartialViewResults for my child actions, so that's not the source of the recursion. Here's a dumbed down version of what I have.

// The Controller

[ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult _EditBillingInfo()
{
    // Generate model
    return PartialView(model);
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult _EditBillingInfo(EditBillingInfoViewModel model)
{
    // Update billing informatoin
    var profileModel = new EditProfileViewModel()
    {
        PartialToLoad = "_EditBillingInfo"
    };

    return View("EditProfile", profileModel);
} 

[ChildActionOnly]
public ActionResult _EditUserInfo()
{
    // Generate model
    return PartialView(model);
}

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult _EditUserInfo(EditUserInfoViewModel model)
{
    // Update user informatoin
    var profileModel = new EditProfileViewModel()
    {
        PartialToLoad = "_EditUserInfo"
    };

    return View("EditProfile", profileModel);
}

public ActionResult EditProfile(EditProfileViewModel model)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(model.PartialToLoad))
    {
        model.PartialToLoad = "_EditUserInfo";
    }

    return View(model);
}

// EditProfile View
@model UPLEX.Web.ViewModels.EditProfileViewModel

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Edit Profile";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_LoggedInLayout.cshtml";
}

<div>
    <h2>Edit Profile</h2>

    <ul>
        <li class="up one"><span>@Ajax.ActionLink("Account Information", "_EditUserInfo",
            new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "EditProfileDiv", LoadingElementId = "LoadingImage" })</span></li>
        <li class="up two"><span>@Ajax.ActionLink("Billing Information", "_EditBillingInfo",
            new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "EditProfileDiv", LoadingElementId = "LoadingImage" })</span></li>
    </ul>
    <img alt="Loading Image" id="LoadingImage" style="display: none;" src="../../Content/Images/Misc/ajax-loader.gif" />

    <div id="EditProfileDiv">
        @Html.Action(Model.PartialToLoad)
    </div>
</div>

The partial views are both forms for updating either the user information or billing information.

I debugged through this and found what is happening, but cannot figure out why. When a user browses to EditProfile, it load up with the _EditUserInfo partial and the form is there for editing. When you change some info and submit the form it hangs and you get a StackOverflowException in the EditProfile view on the call to @Html.Action(). What happens is on the initial visit to EditProfile, the @Html.Action calls the HttpGet version of _EditUserInfo. You make some changes to the user info and click submit. Once the information is updated the EditProfile view is returned again, but this time @Html.Action calls the HttpPost version of _EditUserInfo which updates the user information again, returns the EditProfile view again and the @Html.Action calls the HttpPost version of _EditUserInfo... You get where this is going. Why after form submission does it call the post version and not the get version like it did for the initial visit to EditProfile?

Thanks for any help!

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 22 '11 at 20:31

I might be getting this a bit wrong, it's been a long day so, but in EditProfile you set PartialToLoad (if it's empty) to "_EditUserInfo", then in _EditUserInfo you set it again to _EditUserInfo, won't this create a loop that behaves as what you are experiencing?

MVC 3 StackOverflowException w/ @Html.Action()

1 Answers1