title: ASP.NET MVC - how to get the value from a textbox in my View?
body: <p>If I have a textbox in my view:</p>
  
  <p><code>&lt;div&gt;&lt;%= Html.TextBox("Comments", Model.Comments)%&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</code></p>
  
  <p>I want to post the contents of this textbox to the controller with an Ajax call. I only need this one value though, so I don't want to post the whole form back.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= Ajax.ActionLink("update", "UpdateComments", 
                  new { comments = /* ????? */ }, 
                  new AjaxOptions { HttpMethod="POST" })%&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How do I get the textbox value?</p>