MVC 4 Edit modal form using Bootstrap

You should use partial views. I use the following approach:

Use a view model so you’re not passing your domain models to your views:

public class EditPersonViewModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }   // this is only used to retrieve record from Db
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Age { get; set; }
}

In your PersonController:

[HttpGet] // this action result returns the partial containing the modal
public ActionResult EditPerson(int id)
{  
    var viewModel = new EditPersonViewModel();
    viewModel.Id = id;
    return PartialView("_EditPersonPartial", viewModel);
}

[HttpPost] // this action takes the viewModel from the modal
public ActionResult EditPerson(EditPersonViewModel viewModel)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        var toUpdate = personRepo.Find(viewModel.Id);
        toUpdate.Name = viewModel.Name;
        toUpdate.Age = viewModel.Age;
        personRepo.InsertOrUpdate(toUpdate);
        personRepo.Save();
        return View("Index");
    }
}

Next create a partial view called _EditPersonPartial. This contains the modal header, body and footer. It also contains the Ajax form. It’s strongly typed and takes in our view model.

@model Namespace.ViewModels.EditPersonViewModel
<div class="modal-header">
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">×</button>
    <h3 id="myModalLabel">Edit group member</h3>
</div>
<div>
@using (Ajax.BeginForm("EditPerson", "Person", FormMethod.Post,
                    new AjaxOptions
                    {
                        InsertionMode = InsertionMode.Replace,
                        HttpMethod = "POST",
                        UpdateTargetId = "list-of-people"
                    }))
{
    @Html.ValidationSummary()
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
    <div class="modal-body">
        @Html.Bootstrap().ControlGroup().TextBoxFor(x => x.Name)
        @Html.Bootstrap().ControlGroup().TextBoxFor(x => x.Age)
    </div>
    <div class="modal-footer">
        <button class="btn btn-inverse" type="submit">Save</button>
    </div>
}

Now somewhere in your application, say another partial _peoplePartial.cshtml etc:

<div>
   @foreach(var person in Model.People)
    {
        <button class="btn btn-primary edit-person" data-id="@person.PersonId">Edit</button>
    }
</div>
// this is the modal definition
<div class="modal hide fade in" id="edit-person">
    <div id="edit-person-container"></div>
</div>

    <script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function () {
        $('.edit-person').click(function () {
            var url = "/Person/EditPerson"; // the url to the controller
            var id = $(this).attr('data-id'); // the id that's given to each button in the list
            $.get(url + "https://stackoverflow.com/" + id, function (data) {
                $('#edit-person-container').html(data);
                $('#edit-person').modal('show');
            });
        });
     });
   </script>