In this article I will explain with an example, how to implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC Razor.
The Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging will be implemented using Stored Procedure and Entity Framework in ASP.Net MVC Razor.
 
 
Database
Here I am making use of Microsoft’s Northwind Database. You can download it from here.
Download and install Northwind Database
 
 
Stored Procedure
You will need to create the following Stored Procedure in the Northwind Database. The Stored Procedure accepts @ContactName parameter which is used to perform a search on the records in Customers Table.
CREATE PROCEDURE Customers_SearchCustomers
      @ContactName NVARCHAR(30)
AS
BEGIN
      SET NOCOUNT ON;
      SELECT TOP 10 *
      FROM Customers
      WHERE ContactName LIKE '%' + @ContactName + '%'
END
 
 
Configuring and connecting Entity Framework to database
You will need to configure the Entity Framework in order to connect to the database.
Note: The complete details of configuring and using Entity Framework in ASP.Net MVC are provided in my article ASP.Net MVC: Entity Framework Database First Approach example.
 
Once the Entity Framework is configured, the next step is to import the Stored Procedure in the Entity Framework model. In order to do so, you will need to Right Click the Entity Model and select Update Model from Database option as shown below.
Implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC
 
The above step will open the Update Wizard where you will need to select the Stored Procedure and click Finish.
Implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC
 
Now we will need to import the Stored Procedure into the Entity Framework so that it can be called as a Function using Entity Framework.
Thus you will need to Right Click the Entity Model, click Add and then click Function Import.
Implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC
 
This will open the Add Function Import dialog window. Here first you need to specify the Function Import Name which is the name of the function used to call the Stored Procedure and then select the Stored Procedure that will be executed when the function is called.
The Return Type is selected as Entities which is the Customer Entity class.
Implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC
 
 
Controller
The Entity Framework is now configured and hence now we can create a Controller and write code to fetch the records from the Customers Table of the Northwind Database.
The Controller consists of two Action methods.
Action method for handling GET operation
Inside the Index Action method, the Stored Procedure is called using the SearchCustomers function created using the Function Import procedure done earlier.
The parameter ContactName is passed as empty string and hence it gets all records from the Customers table of the Northwind database.
Finally the list of Customers Entity is returned to the View.
 
Action method for handling POST operation
When the Form is submitted, the value of the Customer Name TextBox is submitted this Action method and the value is passed as parameter to the SearchCustomers function and the list of Customers Entity is returned to the View.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // GET: Home
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();
        return View(entities.SearchCustomers("").ToList());
    }
 
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(string customerName)
    {
        NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();
        return View(entities.SearchCustomers(customerName).ToList());
    }
}
 
 
View
Inside the View, in the very first line the Customer Entity is declared as IEnumerable which specifies that it will be available as a Collection.
HTML Form
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 View, a TextBox is created using the Html.TextBox HTML Helper function and there is a Submit button which when clicked, the Form gets submitted.
 
WebGrid
The WebGrid is initialized with the Model i.e. IEnumerable collection of Customer Entity class objects as source.
The WebGrid is created using the GetHtml method with the following parameters.
HtmlAttributes – It is used to set the HTML attributes to the HTML Table generated by WebGrid such as ID, Name, Class, etc.
Columns – It is used to specify the columns to be displayed in WebGrid and also allows to set specific Header Text for the columns.
 
Performing HTTP POST on WebGrid Paging
By default, when a Page Number Link is clicked in the WebGrid, a HTTP GET called is performed and hence with the help of jQuery the Page Number Links are forced to perform HTTP POST.
 
Displaying Empty Message
When the searching yields zero records, then an Empty Message such as No records found needs to be displayed.
In order to display the Empty Message, a jQuery script is wrapped inside an IF condition which evaluates to TRUE only when the Model.Count is 0 i.e. no records returned from the Stored Procedure.
The jQuery script simply adds a new row with one cell to the HTML Table rendered by the WebGrid and then Empty Message is set in the Table cell.
@model List<WebGrid_Stored_Proc_MVC.Customer>
 
@{
    Layout = null;
    WebGrid webGrid = new WebGrid(source: Model, canSort: false, rowsPerPage: 5);
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"/>
    <title>Index</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        body
        {
            font-family: Arial;
            font-size: 10pt;
        }
 
        .Grid
        {
            border: 1px solid #ccc;
            border-collapse: collapse;
        }
 
        .Grid th
        {
            background-color: #F7F7F7;
            font-weight: bold;
        }
 
        .Grid th, .Grid td
        {
            padding: 5px;
            border: 1px solid #ccc;
        }
 
        .Grid, .Grid table td
        {
            border: 0px solid #ccc;
        }
 
        .Grida, .Grid a:visited
        {
            color: blue;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    @using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { @id = "WebGridForm" }))
    {
        <span>Customer Name:</span> @Html.TextBox("CustomerName")
        <input type="submit" value="Search"/>
    }
    <br/>
    @webGrid.GetHtml(
        htmlAttributes: new { @id = "WebGrid", @class = "Grid" },
        columns: webGrid.Columns(
                 webGrid.Column("CustomerID", "Customer Id"),
                 webGrid.Column("ContactName", "Customer Name"),
                 webGrid.Column("City", "City"),
                 webGrid.Column("Country", "Country")
        ))
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $("body").on("click", ".Grid tfoot a", function () {
            $('#WebGridForm').attr('action', $(this).attr('href')).submit();
            return false;
        });
    </script>
    @if (Model.Count == 0)
    {
        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(function () {
                var row = $("#WebGrid")[0].insertRow(-1);
                var cell = $(row.insertCell(-1));
                cell.html("No records found.");
                cell.attr("colspan", "4").attr("align", "center");
            });
        </script>
    }
</body>
</html>
 
 
Screenshot
Implement Search functionality in WebGrid with Paging in ASP.Net MVC
 
 
Downloads
Download Code