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Force questionmark to show in querystring where only ID param is passed

I've implemented code to encrypt my query string parameter names and values. The code i have implemented will only encrypt query string that contain ?. (This is to prevent encryption of unneeded URL's, such as the .css files).
A way to combat this would be to always show the ? in query strings when only the ID parameter is passed.
For example I would like: http://domain/controller/Action/17
To show as: http://domain/controller/Action/?id=17
I understand that I probably need to edit my routes, I've tried adding the ? symbol to the route which throws the error : The route URL cannot start with a '/' or '~' character and it cannot contain a '?' character.
My routes are defined as:
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.IgnoreRoute("favicon.ico");
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "Login", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
);
How can I get my query strings to show like the example given above?

Don't define your parameters in routes.
ASP.NET automaticaly will add the question mark.
You can then call http://domain/controller/Action?id=17 and it will route to
public ActionResult Action(int id) { }
Update: If you want to kill domain/controller/action/id format completely, you need to define the route as:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Parameterless", //or any name
url: "YourController",
defaults: new { controller = "YourController", action = "YourAction" }
);
Now you can use domain/controller/action?id={id} and domain/controller/action/id will 404.
If you are getting a Server Application Error, you need to provide more details, since it might be related to something else.

If Route doesn't exist -> go to other route using its default action?

So I'm having a little problem here with routing.
There are two parts to this web application:
  1. Brochure / Display Website
  2. Internal Site / Client Application
We wanted a way to release changes for the brochure without having to do a whole release of said Web application.
Visiting existing named views will take the user to a brochure page, however if it doesn't exist, it will act like they are a client and will redirect them to their company's login screen.
Global.asax:
//if view doesnt exist then url is a client and should be redirected
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Brochure",
url: "{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "brochure", action = "Brochure", id = "Index" },
namespaces: new[] { "Web.Areas.Brochure.Controllers" }
);
//This is home page
routes.MapRoute(
name: "HomeDefault",
url: "{client}/{action}",
defaults: new { controller = "home", action = "index" },
namespaces: new string[] { "Web.Controllers" }
);
Controller:
/// <summary> Check if the view exists in our brochure list </summary>
private bool ViewExists(string name) {
ViewEngineResult result = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(ControllerContext, name, null);
return (result.View != null);
}
/// <summary> Generic action result routing for all pages.
/// If the view doesn't exist in the brochure area, then redirect to interal web
/// This way, even when we add new pages to the brochure, there is no need to re-compile & release the whole Web project. </summary>
public ActionResult Brochure(string id) {
if (ViewExists(id)) {
return View(id);
}
return RedirectToRoute("HomeDefault", new { client = id });
}
This code works fine up until we log in and go to the landing page. It seems to keep the Brochure action in the route and doesn't want to go to the subsequent controller which results in a 500 error.
e.g. 'domain/client/Brochure' when it needs to be: 'domain/client/Index'
Things tried but not worked:
Changing RedirectToRoute() to a RedirectToAction() - this results in a
finite loop of going back to the ActionResult Brochure(). So
changing controllers through that didn't work.
Create an ActionResult called Brochure() inside the 'HomeController'. It
doesn't even get hit.
Passed in namespaces for RedirectToRoute() as an attribute. I knew this would probably not work, but it was worth a try.
So the question is:
How can I get the route to act properly?

If you can restrict id to some subset of all values you can add that constraints to route (i.e. numbers only) to let default handle the rest.
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Brochure",
url: "{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "brochure", action = "Brochure", id = "Index" },
namespaces: new[] { "Web.Areas.Brochure.Controllers" }
constraints : new { category = #"\d+"}
);
If you can't statically determine restrictions - automatically redirecting in your BrochureController similar to your current code would work. The only problem with sample in the question is it hits the same route again and goes into infinite redirect loop - redirect to Url that does not match first rule:
// may need to remove defaults from second route
return RedirectToRoute("HomeDefault", new { client = id, action = "index" });
If standard constraints do not work and you must keep single segment in url - use custom constraints - implement IRouteConstraint and use it in first route. See Creating custom constraints.

There are several issues with your configuration. I can explain what is wrong with it, but I am not sure I can set you on the right track because you didn't provide the all of the URLs (at least not all of them from what I can tell).
Issues
Your Brouchure route, which has 1 optional URL segment named {id}, will match any URL that is 0 or 1 segments (such as / and /client). The fact that it matches your home page (and you have another route that is named HomeDefault that will never be given the chance to match the home page) leads me to believe this wasn't intended. You can make the {id} value required by removing the default value id = "Index".
The Brouchure route has a namespace that indicates it is probably in an Area. To properly register the area, you have to make the last line of that route ).DataTokens["area"] = "Brochure"; or alternatively put it into the /Areas/Brouchure/AreaRegistration.cs file, which will do that for you.
The only way to get to the HomeDefault route is to supply a 2 segment URL (such as /client/Index, which will take you to the Index method on the HomeController). The example URLs you have provided have 3 segments. Neither of the routes you have provided will match a URL with 3 segments, so if these URLs are not getting 404 errors they are obviously matching a route that you haven't provided in your question. In other words, you are looking for the problem in the wrong place.
If you provide your entire route configuration including all Area routes and AttributeRouting routes (including the line that registers them), as well as a complete description of what URL should go to what action method, I am sure you will get more helpful answers.
So the question is:
How can I get the route to act properly?
Unknown. Until you describe what properly is.
Related: Why map special routes first before common routes in asp.net mvc?

Two ways I could have solved this issue:
Way 1
I reviewed the redirect and just passed in an action in order to get a route that has 2 segments in the url. i.e. client/Index. The Index action now handles logins - going past a custom controller.
public class HomeController : CustomController
public ActionResult Brochure(string id, string action) {
if (ViewExists(id)) {
return View(id);
}
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home", new { client = id, action = "Index" });
}
Way 2
(from #Alexei_Levenkov)
Create a custom Route constraint so the route will be ignored if the view cannot be found.
namespace Web.Contraints {
public class BrochureConstraint : IRouteConstraint {
public bool Match(HttpContextBase httpContext, Route route, string parameterName, RouteValueDictionary values, RouteDirection routeDirection) {
//Create our 'fake' controllerContext as we cannot access ControllerContext here
HttpContextWrapper context = new HttpContextWrapper(HttpContext.Current);
RouteData routeData = new RouteData();
routeData.Values.Add("controller", "brochure");
ControllerContext controllerContext = new ControllerContext(new RequestContext(context, routeData), new BrochureController());
//Check if our view exists in the folder -> if so the route is valid - return true
ViewEngineResult result = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(controllerContext, "~/Areas/Brochure/Views/Brochure/" + values["id"] + ".cshtml", null);
return result.View != null;
}
}
}
namespace Web {
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication {
//If view doesnt exist then url is a client so use the 'HomeDefault' route below
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Brochure",
url: "{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "brochure", action = "Brochure", id = "Index" },
namespaces: new[] { "Web.Areas.Brochure.Controllers" },
constraints: new { isBrochure = new BrochureConstraint() }
);
//This is home page for client
routes.MapRoute(
name: "HomeDefault",
url: "{client}/{action}",
defaults: new { controller = "home", action = "index" },
namespaces: new string[] { "Web.Controllers" }
);
}
}
I hope this helps someone else out there.

How to access UrlHelper.Action or similar from within Global asax

I am trying to prepare a 301 redirect for a typo I made 'recieved'
I am struggling to find a way of getting the url from the action and controller names.
I am aware of UrlHelper.Action but it does not exist within Global.asax. How do I gain access to this method?:
// Add permanent redirection for retired pages (Application_BeginRequest())
if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.LocalPath.ToLower().StartsWith("/blah/listrecieved"))
{
HttpContext.Current.Response.RedirectPermanent(/*Need url generated from action and controller*/);
}
Alternatively I have created a route, if that's how I should be getting the string, this is also fine but I am unsure of how:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "blah-list-received",
url: "blah/list-received",
defaults: new { controller = "Blah", action = "ListReceived" }
);
for example, it might look like this:
// Add permanent redirection for retired pages
if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.LocalPath.ToLower().StartsWith("/blah/listrecieved"))
{
HttpContext.Current.Response.RedirectPermanent(routes.GetUrl( "blah-list-received" ) );
}

You need to construct the UrlHelper yourself:
var url = new UrlHelper(HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext, RouteTable.Routes)
.Action("YourAction",
"YourController",
new { paramName = paramValue });
See MSDN

Understanding ASP.NET MVC Routes reg

I've created a system in MVC using the NerdDinner tutorial as a base to work off.
Everything was working fine until I used single action methods such as
Here is the global.asax.cs
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "mysample", id=UrlParameter.Optional }
);
which routes to
http:localhost/Home/mysample
i just want to create routes which has more than one action in the sense
http:localhost/<controller>/<action>/<params>
ex: localhost/mycontroller/myaction/details/myname
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks.
update 1:
i have writen router like this as
routes.MapRoute(
"myname", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{details}/{myname}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "mycontroller", action = "myaction", details= "details", myname= "" } // Parameter defaults
);
and retried the value with following syntax as
String name=RouteData.Values["myname"].ToString();
it works fine .
but even though the url called as
localhost/mycontroller/myaction/details
its being routed to that controller and error is being thrown as null reference...
how to avoid it?

You can't define multiple actions in one MVC route.
In MVC routing configuration is used for mapping your Controlers and Actions to user friendly routes and:
Keep URLs clean
Keep URLs discoverable by end-users
Avoid Database IDs in URL
Understanding default route config:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default", // Route name
routeTemplate: "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "mysample", id=UrlParameter.Optional }
);
The "routeTemplate" property on the Route class defines the Url
matching rule that should be used to evaluate if a route rule applies
to a particular incoming request.
The "defaults" property on the Route class defines a dictionary of
default values to use in the event that the incoming URL doesn't
include one of the parameter values specified.
Default route will map all requests, because it has defined default values for every property in routeTemplate, {} means that property is variable, if you not provide value for that param in URL, it will try to take default value if you provide it. In default route it has defined defaults for controller, action and id param is optional. That means if you have route like this:
.../Account/Login
It will take you to Account controller, Login action and because you didn't specified prop and it is defined as optional it will work.
.../Home
This will also work, and it will take you to Home contoller and mysample action
When you define custom route, like you did:
routes.MapRoute(
"myname", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{details}/{myname}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "mycontroller", action = "myaction", details= "details", myname= "" } // Parameter defaults
);
You didn't specified myname as optional and you didn't specified it your route, that means that your URL: localhost/mycontroller/myaction/details wan't be handled by your custom route myname. It will be handled by default route. And when you try to access your myname param in controller it wan't be there and you will get null reference error. If you want to specifie default value of your parameter if not present in url you need to do that in your controller. For example:
public class MyController : Controller
{
public ActionResult MyAction(string details = "details", string myname = "")
{
...
and change your custom route to:
routes.MapRoute(
"myname", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{details}/{myname}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "mycontroller", action = "myaction", details= UrlParameter.Optional, myname= UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
);
But you can define only one controller and only one action, rest of the routeTemplate are parameters.
You can't define two action in one route. It make no sense.

URL Routing Not Working in ASP .Net MVC2

I am working ASP.Net MVC2 application.
In that i have used URL Routing
To get URL as
https://localhost/StudentDetail/SortField
I have written below code in Global.asax
routes.MapRoute(
"StudentDetail", // Route name
"StudentDetail/{SortField}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "UDashboard", action = "UAboutMeStudentDetails",
SortField = "Major" }
);
And In my view link is as below
<a href="/StudentDetail?SortField='Major'" >Students</a>
But it is not working. and my URL is
https://localhost/StudentDetail?SortField='Major'
Can anyone please help me to get the required URL..?
I want URL as
https://localhost/StudentDetail/SortField
Thanks In Advance, Prashant

I think you have an incorrect thought on how routing works. Your route:
routes.MapRoute(
"StudentDetail", // Route name
"StudentDetail/{SortField}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "UDashboard", action = "UAboutMeStudentDetails",
SortField = "Major" }
);
Will take the SortFeild parameter (Major, Gpa, etc), and replace {SortField} with that value. So, using the following actionlink:
#Html.ActionLink("Student Details", "UAboutMeStudentDetails", new {controller="UDashboard", SortField = "Major})
would produce the following HTML
Student Details
Note that the value of SortField has replaced the {SortField} parameter in your route. You would never get a URL looking like what you are requesting as how would you get the value of SortField to the action?