GetVirtualPath method in mvc - asp.net-mvc

Question

Can anyone explain how the virtual path is being calculating?
According to the RouteData.Values or according to the url pattern?
I'm trying to remove some routedata values but still the virtual path is not changes.
I have a problem that the virtual path return with redundant slash at the beginning of the URL like : /he/controller/action the slash before culture is redundant...
I'm using custom routes like the following
routes.Add("Default",
new CustomRoute("{culture}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new
{
controller = "Desktop",
action = "Index",
culture = "he-IL",
guid = "",
id = UrlParameter.Optional
}));
routes.Add("Wizard_" + wizard,
new CustomRoute("{guid}/{culture}/" + wizardName + "/{action}/{id}",
new
{
controller = wizard,
action = "Index",
culture = "he-IL",
guid = "",
id = UrlParameter.Optional
}));
the problem is when using Url.Action(action, controller) method and the action is in the wizard controller, so the URL for the action is wizard format like {guid}/{culture}/" + wizard + "/{action}/{id}
bu the guid value is empty and the returned URL is //he-il/controller/action
instead of /he-il/controller/action
The CustomRoute class:
public class CustomRoute : Route
{
private List<string> _wizards;
public CustomRoute(string uri, object defaults)
: base(uri, new RouteValueDictionary(defaults), new MvcRouteHandler())
{
_wizards = new List<string>();
FillWizards(ref _wizards);
DataTokens = new RouteValueDictionary();
}
public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
bool hasGuid = httpContext.Request.RequestContext.RouteData != null
&& httpContext.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values != null
&& httpContext.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values.ContainsKey("guid")
&& !httpContext.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["guid"].ToString().Equals(Guid.Empty);
var routeData = base.GetRouteData(httpContext);
if (routeData == null)
return null;
bool isWizard = _wizards.Contains(routeData.Values["controller"].ToString());
Debug.WriteLine("Controller: " + routeData.Values["controller"] + " action: " + routeData.Values["action"] + " Is wizard: " + isWizard + " has guid: " + hasGuid);
if (isWizard && !hasGuid)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(routeData.Values["guid"].ToString()))
{
routeData.Values["guid"] = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N");
}
}
return routeData;
}
public override VirtualPathData GetVirtualPath(RequestContext requestContext, RouteValueDictionary values)
{
VirtualPathData path;
path = base.GetVirtualPath(requestContext, values);
return path;
}
private void FillWizards(ref List<string> items)
{
var _configuration = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<IConfiguration>();
List<string> wizards = _configuration.GetParamValue<string>("SessionUniqueWizards", "").Split(new char[] { ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).ToList();
items = wizards;
}
}

Answer 1

The reason why your guid parameter is missing is because
There is no guid parameter in your call to Url.Action(action, controller).
There is (apparently) no guid parameter in the current request. That is, the current route that is being hit has no guid route value.
You have specified the default value for the guid (guid = ""). Since empty string is what you specified as the default, empty string is what you are getting by default.
For the URL to build correctly, the guid has to come from somewhere. MVC always passes matching route values from the current request when building outgoing URLs, but since not all of your URLs have a guid you need to specify it for the pages where it does not exist in the context:
Url.Action("Index", "Search", new { guid = "a565f84f9152495792d433f5bd26000f")
This is the normal way to do it. Typically, if you are building the link for a CRUD operation you are doing so within a list of entities.
For example, for a Product entity, you would normally have links for Edit Product and Delete Product for each Product in a list that would look something like this:
<tr>
<td>model.ProductName</td>
<td>#Html.ActionLink("Product", "Edit", new { guid = model.ProductId })</td>
<td>#Html.ActionLink("Product", "Delete", new { guid = model.ProductId })</td>
</tr>
There would also typically be a link to add a new entity that has no identifier.
#Html.ActionLink("Product", "Add")
But it is unclear from your example how a "wizard" would be created. Creating a new identifier should normally be a function of the Add method, not that of a route.
But there seems to be an issue where you are randomly generating a GUID within your route, so it is unclear how you expect this value to be maintained from one request to the next.