ASP.NET MVC: Route to URL - asp.net-mvc

Question

What's the easiest way to get the URL (relative or absolute) to a Route in MVC? I saw this code here on SO but it seems a little verbose and doesn't enumerate the RouteTable.
Example:
List<string> urlList = new List<string>();
urlList.Add(GetUrl(new { controller = "Help", action = "Edit" }));
urlList.Add(GetUrl(new { controller = "Help", action = "Create" }));
urlList.Add(GetUrl(new { controller = "About", action = "Company" }));
urlList.Add(GetUrl(new { controller = "About", action = "Management" }));
With:
protected string GetUrl(object routeValues)
{
RouteValueDictionary values = new RouteValueDictionary(routeValues);
RequestContext context = new RequestContext(HttpContext, RouteData);
string url = RouteTable.Routes.GetVirtualPath(context, values).VirtualPath;
return new Uri(Request.Url, url).AbsoluteUri;
}
What's a better way to examine the RouteTable and get a URL for a given controller and action?

Answer 1

Use the UrlHelper class: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.urlhelper.aspx
You should be able to use it via the Url object in your controller. To map to an action, use the Action method: Url.Action("actionName","controllerName");.
A full list of overloads for the Action method is here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.urlhelper.action.aspx
so your code would look like this:
List<string> urlList = new List<string>();
urlList.Add(Url.Action("Edit", "Help"));
urlList.Add(Url.Action("Create", "Help"));
urlList.Add(Url.Action("Company", "About"));
urlList.Add(Url.Action("Management", "About"));
EDIT: It seems, from your new answer, that your trying to build a sitemap.
Have a look at this Codeplex project: http://mvcsitemap.codeplex.com/. I haven't used it myself, but it looks pretty solid.

Answer 2

How about this (in the controller):
public IEnumerable<SiteMapEntry> SiteMapEntries
{
get
{
var entries = new List<SiteMapEntry>();
foreach (var route in this.Routes)
{
entries.Add(new SiteMapEntry
(
this.Url.RouteUrl(route.Defaults),
SiteMapEntry.ChangeFrequency.Weekly,
DateTime.Now,
1F));
}
return entries;
}
}
Where the controller has member:
public IEnumerable<Route> Routes
Take note of:
this.Url.RouteUrl(route.Defaults)