Checking value in database on link click

I have an href in my asp.net MVC3 Razor view and I want to check on click of this razor view:

If there exist a record in database, If exists, then show alert, otherwise print some value on page.

link html is like this:

<a class="orphan item subtext" href="#" id="lnkfreereport">
    <span>
       Order Your Fre开发者_运维百科e Report
    </span>
</a>

Please suggest how can I do this using asp.net MVC

---

Please refer AjaxHelper class ActionLink method

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd493106.aspx

---

AJAX?

@Html.ActionLink(
    "Order Your Free Report", 
    "CheckExists", 
    "SomeControllerName",
    null,
    new { id = "checkExists" }
)

and then in a separate javascript file:

$(function() {
    $('#checkExists').click(function() {
        $.getJSON(this.href, function(result) {
            if (result) {
               alert('the record exists');
            }
        });
        return false;
    });
});

and then you could have a controller action which checks whether the given record exists and returns JSON:

public ActionResult CheckExists() 
{
    bool exists = ...
    return Json(exists, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}