When returning a view to an iframe in MVC4, the viewbag, viewdata, or tempdata doesnt pass information back to the overall view. - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I have a view that has some dropdowns that allows you to choose some surveys. When selected it loads the survey into an iframe. Loading the view into it works fine, but I am trying to display stats (summary) about this survey alongside the iframe. But since I'm returning the view to the iframe, the viewbag, viewdata, or tempdata doesnt return anything (imagine it does to the iframe), but I need it to return information to the overall view. Not sure how to do this.. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
My view:
#using (Html.BeginForm("Survey", "Moderator", FormMethod.Post, new { target = modFrame" }))
{
<div id="jWizard" class="jWizard wizardStyle">
<table class="moderatorPage">
<tr>
<td > </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>Study: #Html.DropDownList("SurveyID", Model.Surveys, new { onchange = "LoadGroups();", #class = "dropDownMain" })</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>Group: #Html.DropDownList("GroupID", Model.UserGroups, new { onchange = "LoadUsers();", #class = "dropDownMain" })</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>User: #Html.DropDownList("UserID", Model.Users, new { #class = "dropDownMain" })</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td><input type="submit" value="Start" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td><iframe id="modFrame" name="modFrame" style="width:100%; height:1000px; border:0px"></iframe></td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>#TempData["test"]</td>
<td>#ViewBag.test</td>
<td>#ViewData["test"]</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
}
And in my controller:
public ActionResult Survey(int SurveyID, string GroupID, string UserID)
{
ViewBag.UserID = UserID;
if (SurveyID != 0)
{
TempData["test"] = "test1";
ViewData["test"] = "test2";
ViewBag.test = "test3";
var userTypeRepo = new UserTypeRepository(new UnitOfWork());
ViewBag.UserType = userTypeRepo.Get(user.UserTypeID).Description;
var repo = new SurveyRepository(new UnitOfWork());
var survey = repo.Get(SurveyID, "MasterPages,MasterPages.MasterTickets");
return View(survey);
}
else
{
return View("Error", (object)"Survey ID is zero");
}
}

Answer 1

Welcome to Stackoverflow!
The ViewBag in your iframe is not exposed to the ViewBagin your hosting page. In fact, you will need a page refresh in the hosting page to reload it's own ViewBag.
If I were you, I would re-architect the solution to make use of ajax services and a view engine based on JavaScript (e.g. AngularJS) to retrieve your dynamic data; however, if there is some reason that you have to stick with this iFrame approach, then you probably need to just reload your entire page on a selection change, populate the host page's viewbag with the relevant data, and set the source of the iframe with a ViewBag parameter as well.
Good luck!