ASP Routing

MSDN, Asp.Net. For debugging, Install-Package routedebugger

In Webforms

In MVC

Routes are defined in from global.asax Application_start: RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

Mvc uses the route conventions of {controller} and {action}, with defaults as required.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Yearly",
    "{year}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    new { year = DateTime.Now.Year, controller = "Home", action = "IndexByYear", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

...will map http://site/1983/Products/display/123 to ProductsController (implementing IController) method Display, passing in parameter with name id=123 and year with default 2010.

Route Defaults and Constraints

routes.MapRoute(
    "Yearly",
    "{year}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    new { year = DateTime.Now.Year, controller = "Home", action = "IndexByYear", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
    new { year = @"\d{4}" });

Default/ 404 routes

Remember this should always be the last route.

routes.MapRoute("Error",
"{*url}",
new { controller = "Error", action = "404" }
);

In controllers

Controllers have a RedirectToAction() method.

In Views

use Html.ActionLink or Html.RouteLink

<li><a href="/Home/About">Go to About (manual link)</a></li>
<li>@Html.ActionLink("Go to About", "About")</li>
<li>In another controller</li>
<li>@Html.ActionLink("Go to LogOn", "LogOn", "Account")</li>
<li>Below renders as /Home/Details/2 . The final null is important otherwise you get /Home/Details?Length=4</li>
<li>@Html.ActionLink("Go to Details with parameter", "Details", "Home", new { id = 2 }, null)</li>
<li>RouteLinks</li>
<li>@Html.RouteLink("Go to Logon", new { controller = "Account", action = "Logon" })</li>
<li>@Html.RouteLink("Use named route","SpecialRoute")</li>
<li>Areas</li>
<li>@Html.ActionLink("Go to Admin area", "Index", "User", new { area = "Admin" }, null)</li>