ASP.NET Routing Question

Question

Why is this:

http://MySite.com/Project/24/Search/32/Edit/49

preferred over this?

http://MySite.com/Project/24?Search=32&Edit=49

Answer 1

Not really a fair comparison. The style allows you to drop the GET parameter names, so the routed one should read something like

http://MySite.com/Project/24/32/49

It's really an aesthetic improvement, though -- it's both neater-looking, and easier to type or read out to someone.

Answer 2

Easier to remember as well. It's easier for a user to remember /Employee/1 to get the information for employee #1 rather than understand a querystring. Not a reason to use it but I think its a small improvement.

Answer 3

Its mostly a human readability issue, although (since most search engine ranking algorithms are not publically disclosed), it is believed to have SEO value as well.

Answer 4

I'm not sure where your premise is coming from? It looks like an artificial example, which makes it hard to comment on.

A better comparison would be something like:

http://MySite.com/Project/24/Members/Edit

As opposed to:

http://MySite.com/Projects.aspx?id=24&section=Members&action=Edit

Where, among other things, the hierarchy of entities is immediately obvious from the first example (ie, a Project contains Members). It also suggests that you can use other URLs that contain similar structures to the first (ie, /Projects/24 and /Projects/24/Members), so in that sense it's more concise.

If it comes down to actions that have a variable number of parameters, such as searching, then it's totally fine to use URL parameters as this will give you more flexibility, eg:

http://MySite.com/Projects/Search?name=KillerApp&type=NET

You could construct a URL using the first style, but you don't really gain anything, and managing the route could add unnecessary overhead:

http://MySite.com/Projects/Search/name/KillerApp/type/NET

I would argue that this (or any similar construction, eg if you removed the param names) suffers from an artificial hierarchy - the action in this case is really Search, and everything else is just a parameter of the Search, so it's in the same hierarchy, not some "sub" hierarchy.

Answer 5

In the example case, it may not be any better. But it's a Search Engine Optimization in general. Here are some SEO best practices -- from that article ...

Ideally, the URL structures should be static, and reveal what the page is about. A simple and clear URL structure is much easier for both search engine spiders and human beings.