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UrlHelper in Controller Action does not build correct URL

I have an issue, when I'm trying to build the url for action in controller, the value of vm after assigning is "/". If I try to create url with other action name then everything works fine, like Url.Action("Edit", "Contact").
public class ContactController : Controller
{
public ActionResult List()
{
string vm = Url.Action("Create", "Contact"); // equals "/"
string editUrl = Url.Action("Edit", "Contact"); // all is fine
return View("List", vm);
}
public ActionResult Create()
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
public ActionResult Edit()
{
return HttpNotFound();
}
}
What's wrong with that code?

It is because your route specifies them as defaults.
Your route is:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Contact", action = "Create", id = String.Empty }, null);
Essentially, it is because you specify the default values controller = "Contact", action = "Create". When you specify these as default you are saying if the value is not provided in the URL then use these.
For examples all these URLs are the same: /, /Contact & /Contact/Create. By default MVC generates you the shortest URL.
You could either change the default values or remove them like this:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { id = String.Empty }, null);

How to Create a dynamic Controller to handle many static Views in ASP.NET MVC?

I have a bunch of mostly-static pages (about 40),
like: order-form01.html, order-form02.html, orderform03.html etc..
Should each of them have its own Controller/Action, or is that possible to have one dynamic Controller/Action for all of them?
My Url should look like this: http://MyProject/GlobalController/IndividualView and for the above example: http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form01, http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form02 etc..
Thanks in advance.

Yes it's very easy AND you don't need a switch statement or any other redundant logic.
public class MyController
{
public ActionResult Page(string file)
{
return View(file);
}
}
The magic is in the Route Map:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
// New MapRoute for your 40+ files..
routes.MapRoute(
"OrdeForm",
"OrderForm/{file}",
new { controller = "MyController", action = "Page", {file} = "" }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }
);
}
Additionally:
I pass the View name in the query string.
Is not required, but is supported. The following urls will work:
// Url Parameters
http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form01
http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form02
// Querystring Parameters
http://MyProject/OrderForm?file=order-form01
http://MyProject/OrderForm?file=order-form02
The only catch is that you need to rename your html files to cshtml and place them in the correct directory for the ViewEngine to find.
#Erik, I also bit of new to mvc . Could you please explain your route map as of how is it possible with default raute again and again
Routes are broken down into 3 values:
Controller
Action
Parameter(s)
At a bare minimum, the controller and action are required. Where the values come from is not dependent on the Url. For example, in the following Url and Map Route...
// Url
http://MyProject/
// MapRoute
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }
);
// Controller named "Home" matches the default in the above route
// Method named "Index" matches the default in the above route
public class HomeController {
public ActionResult Index() {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
... everything still works because we provided a default value for the controller and action.
Ok let's break down the URL you want:
http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form01
http://MyProject/OrderForm/order-form02
http://MyProject/<identifier>/{parameter}
You have one identifier that tells me route (OrderForm) and one changing value that because it changes and you want one value, should be a parameter.
http://MyProject/<identifier>/{file}
The name of the parameter makes no difference as long as it matches the signature of the controller method:
http://MyProject/{Controller}/{file}
public class HomeController {
public ActionResult Index(string file) {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
or
http://MyProject/{Controller}/{einstein}
public class HomeController {
public ActionResult Index(string einstein) {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
I named the parameter file, because it tells me it's the parameter is a name of a file, whereas the name einstein has no inherent description so is a terrible name for a variable.
http://MyProject/{Controller}/{file}
// MapRoute
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }
);
// Controller named "Home" matches the default in the above route
// Method named "Index" matches the default in the above route
public class HomeController {
public ActionResult Index() {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
Now we only want this route to run when the identifier is OrderForm so we don't allow that to be a value, we hard code it.
url: "OrderForm/...
Next we have a value that keeps changing, so we to add url parameter:
url: "OrderForm/{file}"
Now we have an issue because we aren't allowing MVC to parse values from the url to populate Controller nor Action so we must supply them.
routes.MapRoute(
name: "",
url: "OrderForm/{file}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", file = "" }
);
Here we've mapped the url http://MyProject/OrderForm/{file} to:
public class HomeController {
public ActionResult Index(string file) {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
Now I would choose to to update the defaults to something more specific and descriptive:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "",
url: "OrderForm/{file}",
defaults: new { controller = "OrderForm", action = "Index", file = "" }
);
public class OrderFormController {
public ActionResult Index(string file) {
return new EmptyResult();
}
}
Hope that all makes sense.

After the question edited :my solution is, you can have one controller/action and it should call view (cshtml). Your querystring data should be pass to view as of viewbag variable and partial views should be called acording to the viewbag variable. noo need of editing routing table even(if you are willing to pass it as a query string).
//your routeconfig will be
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
url: "{controller}/{file}",
defaults: new { controller = "OrderForm", action = "Index", file = "" }
);
//here no need to have 40 routing table one is enough
//your controller/action will be
public class OrderForm
{
public ActionResult Index(string file)
{
ViewBag.Orderform=file
return View(file);
}
}
//view bag variable is accessible in view as well as in javascript
But I would say as best practice, you can modify default routing to access all urls and navigate it to same controller/action and let that action to return the view. After that use angular / knockout js to handle client side routing and based on it the partial views should be loaded.(still your url will be different for your 40 pages but noo need to pass it as query string)
//your route table will be
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
url: "{controller}/{file}",
defaults: new { controller = "OrderForm", action = "Index"}
);
//your controller will be
public class OrderForm
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View(file);
}
Navigation should be handled by client side routing

MVC4 Dynamic Controller Path?

I have a SiteController class in my MVC4 project,the 'Site' url is working fine, but I need a dynamic url part right after 'Site', I need the url to look like this:
mysite.com/Site/{DYNAMICSTRING}/Users(or whatever)
{DYNAMICSTRING} can be the name of a subsite, so the controller should check if that subsite does actually exist in the database.
Right now I'm using Query strings, but that is not what my client wants.
How can I do that?
Additional details
My routing:
routes.MapRoute(
"Subdomain", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{dynamicString}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Site", action = "Subdomain" } // Parameter defaults
);
My controller:
public ActionResult Subdomain(string dynamicString)
{
return View();
}
the value of dynamicString is null when I navigate to: /Site/Subdomain/SomeString

You have to configure routing. For example if you have Homecontroller:
public class HomeController:Controller
{
public ActionResult Subdomain(string dynamicString)
{
return View();
}
}
then you have to configure your routing something like that
routes.MapRoute(
"Subdomain", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{dynamicString}/anyOtherParams", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "Subdomain", dynamicString = "" } // Parameter defaults
);

You can do it like this:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default", // Route name
url:"Site/{dynamicstring}", // URL with parameters
defaults: new {controller = "Site", action = "Index" } // Defaults
);
you can keep adding parts to the url part like so
url:"Site/{dynamicstring}/{anythingelse}" // url:"Site/{dynamicstring}/{anythingelse}/{bla}/Test/{hello}/etc..."
or you can also have a catch all route like this:"
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default", // Route name
url:"{*all}", // catch all
defaults: new {controller = "Site", action = "Index" } // Defaults
);
and fetch all other parts in your controllers index action, by splitting them on /
Make sure you put the custom route before your default otherwise the default route will pick it up.
in your controller you get something like this:
public ActionResult Index(string dynamicstring, string anythingelse)
{
return View();
}
and if you then pass in a url like this:
http://www.mysite.com/Site/test.nl/jordy
your dynamicstring will have the value "test.nl" and your anythingelse will have "jordy"
I hope this helps

Must the first view must always be called index.aspx?

I have created a controller called loginController.cs and i have created a view called login.aspx
How do I call that view from loginController.cs?
The ActionResult is always set to index and for neatness, I want to specify what view the controller uses when called rather than it always calling its default index?
Hope that makes sense.

You can customize pretty much everything in MVC routing - there is no particular restriction on how routes look like (only ordering is important), you can name actions differently from method names (via ActionName attribute), your can name views whatever you want (i.e. by returning particular view by name).
return View("login");

In the interest of actually answering the question.. you can add a route ABOVE your default route in Global.asax:
routes.MapRoute(
"SpecialLoginRoute",
"login/",
new { controller = "Login", action = "Login", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
);
..although, without properly thinking through what you're trying to achieve (that being.. changing what MVC does by default) you're bound to end up with lots and lots of messy routes.

Your return the view from your controller via your Action methods.
public class LoginController:Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
//this method will return `~/Views/Login/Index.csthml/aspx` file
}
public ActionResult RecoverPassword()
{
return View();
//this method will return `~/Views/Login/RecoverPassword.csthml/aspx` file
}
}
If you need to return a different view (other than the action method name, you can explicitly mention it
public ActionResult FakeLogin()
{
return View("Login");
//this method will return `~/Views/Login/Login.csthml/aspx` file
}
If you want to return a view which exist in another controller folder, in ~/Views, you can use the full path
public ActionResult FakeLogin2()
{
return View("~/Views/Account/Signin");
//this method will return `~/Views/Account/Signin.csthml/aspx` file
}

MVC3 Overloading the Index action getting 500 errors

I having some problems overloading the Index action in a controller. In the controller I have the following actions:
public ActionResult Index(int id)
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
Going to either URL (controllername/ or controllername/1) results in a 500 error. However when I use:
public ActionResult Index(int? id)
{
return View();
}
The controllername/ URL works but controllername/1 results in a 404 error. My global.asax is pretty vanilla:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
);
What I would like to do is be able to handle a null id as well as an integer id value. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

I think you will need to explicit the routes for that:
routes.MapRoute(
"ControllerName", // Route name
"ControllerName/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "ControllerName", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
if it doesn't work, you may need to be more explicit and add this before:
routes.MapRoute(
"ControllerName",
"ControllerName",
new { controller = "ControllerName", action = "Index"}
);

I think you don't need an overload here, but just need a check inside the index action for the null.
Overloading action is not a good idea, because framework would have no idea of which action to call incase of null index.
Adding custom routing for every action overload will cause slower response time because of too many custom routes to resolved.