MVC Attribute routing with Url.Action not resolving route - asp.net-mvc

I cannot get #Url.Action to resolve to the url I am expecting based on the attribute route I have applied:
My action (SearchController but with [RoutePrefix("add")])
[Route("{searchTerm}/page/{page?}", Name = "NamedSearch")]
[Route("~/add")]
public ActionResult Index(string searchTerm = "", int page = 1)
{
...
}
Call to Url.Action
#Url.Action("Index", new { controller = "Search", searchTerm = "replaceMe", page = 1 })
This results in a url of
/add?searchTerm=replaceMe&page=1
I would expect
/add/replaceMe/page/1
If I type the url manually then it resolves to the correct action with the correct parameters. Why doesn't #Url.Action resolve the correct url?

Since you have a name for your pretty route definition, you may use the RouteUrl method.
#Url.RouteUrl("NamedSearch", new { searchTerm = "replaceMe", page = 1})
And since you need add in the url, you should update your route definition to include that in the url pattern.
[Route("~/add")]
[Route("~/add/{searchTerm?}/page/{page?}", Name = "NamedSearch")]
public ActionResult Index(string searchTerm = "", int page = 1)
{
// to do : return something
}

Routes are order sensitive. However, attributes are not. In fact, when using 2 Route attributes on a single action like this you may find that it works on some compiles and not on others because Reflection does not guarantee an order when analyzing custom attributes.
To ensure your routes are entered into the route table in the correct order, you need to add the Order property to each attribute.
[Route("{searchTerm}/page/{page?}", Name = "NamedSearch", Order = 1)]
[Route("~/add", Order = 2)]
public ActionResult Index(string searchTerm = "", int page = 1)
{
return View();
}
After you fix the ordering problem, the URL resolves the way you expect.
#Url.Action("Index", new { controller = "Search", searchTerm = "replaceMe", page = 1 })
// Returns "/add/replaceMe/page/1"

To return full URL use this
#Url.Action("Index", new { controller = "Search", searchTerm = "replaceMe", page = 1}, protocol: Request.Url.Scheme)
// Returns "http://yourdomain.com/add/replaceMe/page/1"
Hope this helps someone.

Related

How to call a action by route specified over action in MVC?

MVC controller code is:
[Route("Home-Appliances")]
public async Task<ActionResult> homeappliances(string q = "", string tags = null, int minPrice = 0, int maxPrice = 50000, bool accessories = false, string condition = null, int? page = null)
{
//my stuff...
}
How can I call this method from view using html helpers?
Note: I don't want to call this by action name. I have to call this by route specified i.e, Home-Appliances
"Home-Appliances" is not the route name, it's the URL. If you want to call it by route name, you need to pass a name:
[Route("Home-Appliances", Name = "HomeAppliances")]
Then, you can do:
Url.RouteUrl("HomeAppliances")

Attribute Routing with multiple optional parameter

I have a controller named "view" with below action that has multiple optional parameters. I want to use the Attribute Routing to generate URLs like these:
/view/keyword/sometext/country/canada
/view/country/canada
/view/keyword/sometext/country/canada/city/calgary
/view/keyword/sometext/country/canada/state/alberta
/view/country/canada/state/alberta/page/1
As you can see, there could be a various combination of URLs since all of these parameters are optional.
However, if i use like below, i get error if the requested url doesn't match or one of the optional Parameter is null.
[Route("view/keyword/{keyword}/country/{country}/state/{state}/city/{city}/page/{page}")]
public ActionResult Index(int? page, string keyword = "", string city = "", string state = "", string country = "")
{
return view();
}
If i use like below, some of the url works but that would take me to write 20+ new routes depending on number of parameters. I am using MVC 5.
[Route("view/keyword/{keyword}/country/{country}/state/{state}/city/{city}/page/{page}")]
[Route("view/keyword/{keyword}/country/{country}/state/{state}/page/{page}")]
[Route("view/keyword/{keyword}/country/{country}/city/{city}/page/{page}")]
[Route("view/keyword/{keyword}/state/{state}/city/{city}/page/{page}")]
[Route("view/state/{state}/city/{city}/page/{page}")]
public ActionResult Index(int? page, string keyword = "", string city = "", string state = "", string country = "")
{
return view();
}
Any suggestions please?
May be you can add your routes in the RoutesConfig.cs file.
In the RoutesCollection collection of the RegisterRoutes method. placing the default one (which is already present) at the last place.
routes.MapRoute(
"CustomRouteName", // Route name
"view/state/{state}/city/{city}/page/{page}"// URL with parameters
new { controller = "View", action = "Index", state = "", city = "", page="" }
);

Using HtmlHelper.BeginForm to match a complicated route

I have a complicated route that I would like to match with an HtmlHelper.BeginForm method. I've read quite a few articles and answers on using route value dictionaries and object initializers and html attributes. But they all fall short of what I want to do...
Here is the route I want to match:
// Attempt to consolidate all Profile controller actions into one route
routes.MapRoute(
"Profile",
"{adminUserCode}/{controller}s/{customerId}/{action}/{profileId}",
new { adminUserCode = UrlParameter.Optional, controller = "Profile"},
new { adminUserCode = #"\d+", customerId = #"\d+", profileId = #"\d+" }
);
An example url for the controller & action I want to match with this would be:
http://mysite.com/123/Profiles/456/UpdatePhoneNumber/789
With the actual phone number being in the POST body
And here is the closest syntax I've come to getting right:
#using (Html.BeginForm(
"UpdatePhoneNumber",
"Profile",
new {
customerId = Model.LeadProfile.CustomerId,
profileId = Model.CustomerLeadProfileId
}))
{
<!-- the form -->
}
But this puts the parameters in the object as query string parameters, like this:
<form method="post"
action="/mvc/123/Profiles/UpdatePhoneNumber?customerId=78293&profileId=1604750">
I just tried this syntax on a whim, but it output the same thing as the other overload
#using (Html.BeginForm(new
{
controller = "Profile",
customerId = Model.LeadProfile.CustomerId,
action = "UpdatePhoneNumber",
profileId = Model.CustomerLeadProfileId
}))
I know I can just fall back on raw HTML here, but there seems like there should be a way to get the silly HtmlHelper to match more than the most basic of routes.
If you want to use complicated routes in your form you need to use the BeginRouteForm Method
#using (Html.BeginRouteForm("Profile", new
{
controller = "Profile",
customerId = Model.LeadProfile.CustomerId,
action = "UpdatePhoneNumber",
profileId = Model.CustomerLeadProfileId
}))

Pretty URL ASP.NET MVC

How can I get pretty urls like localhost:8888/News/Example-post instead of localhost:8888/Home/Details/2
My HomeController has the following for the Details method
public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
var ArticleToView = (from m in _db.ArticleSet where m.storyId == id select m).First();
return View(ArticleToView);
As the ASP.NET routing system is somewhat complicated, there are many ways to accomplish what you describe.
First of all, do you just want to have a pretty URL for the Details method? If so, you might consider renaming HomeController to NewsController or moving the Details method into a new NewsController class - that will automatically form the /News part of the URL. If you don't want a /Details part, you might rename your Details method Index, as that will be automatically called by /News. Finally, you need to change your int id parameter into string name.
If you want many custom URLs, you're going to have to define your own routes. Here are two ways of doing this:
1.
The easiest way I've found is to use an ASP.NET MVC Attribute-Based Route Mapper. That way, all you have to do is add an attribute on each method you want a pretty URL for and specify what URL you want.
First, you must follow a few steps to set up the attribute-based route mapping system, as outlined on that link.
After completing those steps, you must change your method to look like this:
[Url("News/{name}")]
public ActionResult Details(string name)
{
var ArticleToView = (from m in _db.ArticleSet where m.storyName == name select m).First();
return View(ArticleToView);
}
2.
Alternatively, you can define your custom routes manually in Global.asax.cs. In your RegisterRoutes method, you can add the following in the middle:
routes.MapRoute(
"NewsDetails",
"News/{name}",
new { controller = "News", action = "Details", name = "" }
);
What I do on my sites is that I check the URL against either the Page Title or Page Stub in cases where the page titles could have the same name for instance if you have a site that posts a "Picture of the Week" you may want to use a stub instead of title as you'll have multiples named the same thing.
URLs look like this: http://mySite.com/Page/Verse-of-the-Week
Global.asax contains this:
routes.MapRoute("Pages", "{controller}/{pageID}", new { controller = "Page", action = "Index", pageID = "Home" });
PageController is this:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]
public ActionResult Index(string pageID)
{
if (pageID == null)
{
pageID = pageRepository.HomeOrLowest();
}
var p = pageRepository.ByStub(pageID);
if (p == null) { return RedirectToAction("NotFound", "Error"); }
return View(p);
}
The repository looks like this:
private static Func<mvCmsContext, string, Page> _byStub =
CompiledQuery.Compile((mvCmsContext context, string pageTitle) =>
(from p in context.Pages
where p.pageTitle.Replace(" ", "-") == pageTitle
select p).SingleOrDefault());
public Page ByStub(string pageTitle)
{
return _byStub(context, pageTitle);
}
I hope that helps.
Edit to add duplicate handling:
private static Func<mvCmsContext, string, int> _pageExists =
CompiledQuery.Compile((mvCmsContext context, string pageTitle) =>
(from p in context.Pages
where p.pageTitle.Replace(" ", "-") == pageTitle
select p).Count());
public bool PageExists(string pageTitle)
{
return Convert.ToBoolean(_pageExists(context, pageTitle));
}
Validates like this:
IValidationErrors errors = new ValidationErrors();
if (CreateOrEdit == "Create")
{
if (pageRepository.PageExists(model.pageTitle) && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(model.pageTitle))
errors.Add("pageTitle", "A page with this title already exists. Please edit it and try again.");
}
Please check out this package I've created: https://www.nuget.org/packages/LowercaseDashedRoute/
And read the one-line configuration here: https://github.com/AtaS/lowercase-dashed-route

Ambient values in mvc2.net routing

I have following two routes registered in my global.asax file
routes.MapRoute(
"strict",
"{controller}.mvc/{docid}/{action}/{id}",
new { action = "Index", id = "", docid = "" },
new { docid = #"\d+"}
);
routes.MapRoute(
"default",
"{controller}.mvc/{action}/{id}",
new { action = "Index", id = "" },
new { docConstraint = new DocumentConstraint() }
);
and I have a static "dashboard" link in my tabstrip and some other links that are constructed from values in db here is the code
<ul id="globalnav" class = "t-reset t-tabstrip-items">
<li class="bar" id = "dashboard">
<%=Html.ActionLink("dash.board", "Index", pck.Controller, new{docid =string.Empty,id = pck.PkgID }, new { #class = "here" })%>
</li>
<%
foreach (var md in pck.sysModules)
{
%>
<li class="<%=liClass%>">
<%=Html.ActionLink(md.ModuleName, md.ActionName, pck.Controller, new { docid = md.DocumentID}, new { #class = cls })%>
</li>
<%
}
%>
</ul>
Now my launching address is localhost/oa.mvc/index/11 clearly matching the 2nd route. But when I visit any page that has mapped to first route and then come back to dash.board link it shows me localhost/oa.mvc/7/index/11 where 7 is docid and picked from previous Url.
I understand that my action method is after docid and changing it would not clear the docid.
My question here is, can I remove docid in this scenario without changing the route?
I have the same "not clearing out" value problem...
I've stepped into source code and I don't understand the reason for being of segment commented as : // Add all current values that aren't in the URL at all
# System\Web\Routing\ParsedRoute.cs, public BoundUrl Bind(RouteValueDictionary currentValues, RouteValueDictionary values, RouteValueDictionary defaultValues, RouteValueDictionary constraints) method from line 91 to line 100
While the clearing process is correctly handled in method preceding steps, this code "reinjects" the undesired parameter into acceptedValues dictionary!?
My routing is defined this way:
routes.MapRoute(
"Planning",
"Plans/{plan}/{controller}/{action}/{identifier}",
new { controller = "General", action = "Planning", identifier = UrlParameter.Optional },
new { plan = #"^\d+$" }
);
// default application route
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{identifier}",
new {
controller = "General",
action = "Summary",
identifier = UrlParameter.Optional,
plan = string.Empty // mind this default !!!
}
);
This is very similar to what you're using. But mind my default route where I define defaults. Even though my default route doesn't define plan route value I still set it to string.Empty. So whenever I use Html.ActionLink() or Url.Action() and I want plan to be removed from the URL I call it the usual way:
Url.Action("Action", "Controller", new { plan = string.Empty });
And plan is not included in the URL query string any more. Try it out yourself it may work as well.
Muhammad, I suggest something like this :
(written 5 mn ago, not tested in production)
public static class MyHtmlHelperExtensions {
public static MvcHtmlString FixActionLink(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string linkText, string actionName, string controllerName, object routeValues, object htmlAttributes) {
var linkRvd = new RouteValueDictionary(routeValues);
var contextRvd = htmlHelper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values;
var contextRemovedRvd = new RouteValueDictionary();
// remove clearing route values from current context
foreach (var rv in linkRvd) {
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)rv.Value) && contextRvd.ContainsKey(rv.Key)) {
contextRemovedRvd.Add(rv.Key, contextRvd[rv.Key]);
contextRvd.Remove(rv.Key);
}
}
// call ActionLink with modified context
var htmlString = htmlHelper.ActionLink(linkText, actionName, controllerName, routeValues, htmlAttributes);
// restore context
foreach (var rv in contextRemovedRvd) {
contextRvd.Add(rv.Key, rv.Value);
}
return htmlString;
}
}
This is such a frustrating problem and I would venture to say that it is even a bug in ASP.Net MVC. Luckily it's an easy fix using ActionFilters. If you are using MVC3 then I would just put this as a global attribute to clear out ambient values. I made this attribute discriminatory, but you can change it to clear all attributes.
The assumption here is that by the time the Result is executing (your view most likely), you have already explicitly specified all your ActionLinks and Form Actions. Thus this will execute before they (the links) are evaluated, giving you a new foundation to generate them.
public class ClearAmbientRouteValuesAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
private readonly string[] _keys;
public ClearAmbientRouteValuesAttribute(params string [] keys)
{
if (keys == null)
_keys = new string[0];
_keys = keys;
}
public override void OnResultExecuting(ResultExecutingContext filterContext)
{
foreach (var key in _keys) {
// Why are you sticking around!!!
filterContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values.Remove(key);
}
}
}
// Inside your Global.asax
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
filters.Add(new ClearAmbientRouteValuesAttribute("format"));
}
Hope this helps someone, cause it sure helped me. Thanks for asking this question.
In this particular scenario I have two recommendations:
Use named routes. The first parameter to the MapRoute method is a name. To generate links use Html.RouteLink() (and other similar APIs). This way you'll always choose the exact route that you want and never have to wonder what gets chosen.
If you still want to use Html.ActionLink() then explicitly set docid="" to clear out its value.
Here's how I solved my problem, it may take a little adapting to get it to work, but I felt like I could get what I needed and just use routing more or less normally:
Excerpted from Apress Pro ASP.Net.MVC 3 Framework:
A value must be available for every segment variable defined in the URL pattern.
To find values for each segment variable, the routing system looks first at the
values we have provided (using the properties of anonymous type), then the
variable values for the current request, and finally at the default values defined in
the route. (We return to the second source of these values later in this chapter.)
None of the values we provided for the segment variables may disagree with the
default-only variables defined in the route. These are variables for which default
values have been provided, but which do not occur in the URL pattern. For
example, in this route definition, myVar is a default-only variable:
routes.MapRoute("MyRoute", "{controller}/{action}",
new { myVar = "true" });
For this route to be a match, we must take care to not supply a value for myVar or to make
sure that the value we do supply matches the default value.
The values for all of the segment variables must satisfy the route constraints. See
the “Constraining Routes” section earlier in the chapter for examples of different
kinds of constraints.
Basically I used the rule about a route not matching if it doesn't define a segment, but has a default variable used to give me a little more control over whether a route was chosen for outbound routing or not.
Here's my fixed routes, notice how I specify a value for category that would never be valid and don't specify a segment for category. This means that route will be skipped if I have a category, but will use it if I only have a page:
routes.MapRoute(null, "receptionists/faq/{page}", new { controller = "Receptionist", action = "Faq", page = 1, category = (Object)null }, new { page = #"^\d+$" });
routes.MapRoute(null, "receptionists/faq/{category}/{page}", new { controller = "Receptionist", action = "Faq", page = 1 }, new { category = #"^\D+$", page = #"^\d+$" });
For Category Links
#Html.ActionLink("All", "Faq", new { page = 1 })
#foreach (var category in Model.Categories)
{
#Html.ActionLink(category.DisplayName, "faq", new { category = category.DisplayName.ToLower(), page = 1 })
}
For Page Links
#for (var p = 1; p <= Model.TotalPages; p++)
{
#Html.ActionLink(p.ToString(), "Faq", new { page = p, category = Model.CurrentCategory})
}

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