ASP.NET MVC - Multiplie views with same name?

Question

Hey again, this question is mostly related to my previous question. I'm having an Edit view for my Product site to list the products with edit/delete link attached.. But how can I do:

/products/edit = show list with edit/delete links.

/products/edit/{productId} = show edit model (textboxes etc) for the specific product.

Answer 1

You could always do this:

public ActionResult Edit(int? productId)
{
    if (productId != null)
    {
        return View("ViewWithTextBoxes.aspx");
    }
    return View("ViewWithEditDeleteLinks.aspx");
}

This being said, the case of showing edit and delete links doesn't seem like editing so I would recommend you using different action names. It seems more RESTful to me like this:

/products/index
/products/edit/{productId}

In this case you are having different actions and views for each case:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var products = _repository.GetProducts();
    return View(products);
}

public ActionResult Edit(int productId)
{
    var product = _repository.GetProduct(productId);
    return View(product);
}