I'm looking for a way to generate Html.ActionLinks through C#.
How would I go and do this, I've tried this:
public static string CreateSubjectTree(SqlConnection con)
{
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
result.Append("Html.ActionLink(\"Blabla\", \"Read\", \"Chapter\")");
return Convert.ToString(result);
}
This returns the raw HTML rather than the generated code.
What I want it to accomplish is creating a link which calls the Controller with some parameters.
You do not need to return a string. Take a MvcHtmlString. Create an extension method like this:
public static MvcHtmlString CustomActionLink( this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, SqlConnection con)
{
//do your retrival logic here
// create a linktext string which displays the inner text of the anchor
// create an actionname string which calls the controller
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
result.Append(linktext);
result.Append(actionname);
return new MvcHtmlString(result);
}
In your view:
@Html.CustomActionLink(SqlConnection con)
You need to import the namespace System.Web.Mvc.Html AND make sure your route is defined in the RouteConfig.cs or whereever you define your custom routes.
An Important note: Your final string (result), which is returned needs to be in the format:
<a href='/Controller/Action/optionalrouteparameters'>LinkText</a>
The MvcHtmlString() makes sure every possible character like =, ? & \ are properly escaped and the link is rendered correctly
For reference see msdn: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dd493018(v=vs.108).aspx
using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
namespace MyHelper
{
public static class CustomLink
{
public static IHtmlString CreateSubjectTree(this HtmlHelper html, SqlConnection con)
{
// magic logic
var link = html.ActionLink("Blabla", "Read", "Chapter").ToHtmlString();
return new MvcHtmlString(link);
}
}
}
Use in View:
@Html.CreateSubjectTree(SqlConnection:con)
Web config:
<system.web.webPages.razor>
...
<pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
<namespaces>
<add namespace="MyHelper" />
...
</namespaces>
</pages>
</system.web.webPages.razor>
There's an overload of Html.ActionLink that already does what you want:
@Html.ActionLink("Link text", "action", "controller", new { id = something }, null)
