title: Persisting data from multiple forms in ASP.NET MVC
body: <p>I have two forms on one page: a results form and a search form.  The search form uses a partial view because it is displayed on several different pages.  I want to be able to persist the data in the search form regardles of which button on which form the user clicks.  The problem is that when the user clicks on a link or button from the results form, only the form values from the results form are posted, the values from the search form are not included.  How can I maintain the values in the search form even when it is not the form that is submitted? I do not want to use any type of session state to maintain the form and I dont want to write the search values in hidden fields in the results form.  I just want to be able to post them with the form values of the results form so that the users search criteria can be maintained accross any page that displays the search partial view.  What am I missing? </p>
  
  <p>The first thought that occured to me is to remove the form wrapping the search control and just let it be rendered into the form with the results data.  I worry here about naming conflicts.  What happens when the search from has a control with the same name as the results form, wouldn't this cause a naming conflict?  I suppose that this could just be managed manually to ensure that there are unique names whenever rendering partial views into other views, perhaps even going so far as to prefix values with the partial view name, but that reminds me of the ugliness that is INamingContainer in web forms - plus makes for cumbersome field names in your model. </p>
  
  <p>Is there some sort of elegant solution that will allow a form to persist state that I am missing? Thanks! </p>