In this article I will explain with an example, how to implement jQuery UI DatePicker (Calendar) in ASP.Net MVC Razor.
 
 
Controller
The Controller consists of two Action methods.
Action method for handling GET operation
Inside this Action method, simply the View is returned.
 
Action method for handling POST operation
This Action method gets called when the Form is posted. The value of the selected date is fetched and it set into a ViewBag object.
The value of the ViewBag object will be used for displaying the selected date in View using JavaScript Alert Message Box.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // GET: Home
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
 
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(string selectedDate)
    {
        ViewBag.Message = "Selected Date: " + selectedDate;
        return View();
    }
}
 
 
View
The View consists of an HTML Form which has been created using the Html.BeginForm method with the following parameters.
ActionName – Name of the Action. In this case the name is Index.
ControllerName – Name of the Controller. In this case the name is Home.
FormMethod – It specifies the Form Method i.e. GET or POST. In this case it will be set to POST.
Inside the Form, there is a TextBox and a Submit Button. The TextBox has been made ReadOnly and has been applied with the jQuery DatePicker Plugin.
When the date is selected and the Submit button is pressed, the Form is submitted and the value of the selected date is returned in a ViewBag object which is displayed using JavaScript Alert Message Box.
@{
    Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"/>
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    @using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post))
    {
        @Html.TextBox("SelectedDate", "", new { @readonly = "readonly" })
        <br/>
        <br/>
        <input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
    }
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/jquery-ui.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <link href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/themes/base/jquery-ui.css" rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function () {
            $("#SelectedDate").datepicker({
                showOn: 'button',
                buttonImageOnly: true,
                buttonImage: '/images/calendar.gif'
            });
        });
    </script>
    @if (ViewBag.Message != null)
    {
        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(function () {
                alert("@ViewBag.Message");
            });
        </script>
    }
</body>
</html>
 
 
Screenshot
jQuery UI DatePicker (Calendar) example in ASP.Net MVC
 
 
Browser Compatibility

The above code has been tested in the following browsers.

Internet Explorer  FireFox  Chrome  Safari  Opera 

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