How this controller can get the values it needs?

Question

Say I have set up a url structure as follows (ASP.NET MVC2)

http://localhost:XXXX/Product/

Click on link browse by color

http://localhost:XXXX/Product/Color/

Click on link browse red color items by type (i.e. pen's)

http://localhost:XXXX/Product/Color/Red/Pen

In the controller, I will need to do a select based on these criteria. Except when previously, I could go

public ActionResult ShowTypesForColor(string color)

but to do this one:

public ActionResult ShowItems(string type)

I also need the color that was selected.

How could I do this? Is splitting up the url string the only way?

edit: maybe i've gotten ahead of myself in the global.asax.cs

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowAllColors" });

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/{color}", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowTypesForColor" });

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/{color}/{type}", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowDetail" });

I don't think I can define the last one like that can I? with two {} values?

Answer 1

Your last route seems perfectly valid. It will map to action with signature like this:

ActionResult ShowDetails(string color, string type) {
  return View(/*view params*/);
}

EDIT I think the order is wrong, so if the last route is not being fired, try doing this:

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/{color}/{type}", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowDetail" });

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/{color}", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowTypesForColor" });

routes.MapRoute(null, "Product/Color/", new { controller = "Product", action = "ShowAllColors" });

The order of MVC routes should be from most specific to least specific, otherwise the least specific route (/product/color/{color}) will match a url product/color/red/pen before the more specific /product/color/{color}/{type}

Answer 2

You can put multiple tokens in your route (e.g., {color} and {type}) but it's not going the work the way you have it there. Why have you defined "Color" as the second segment of your URL? Why not just do /Products/Red and /Products/Red/Pen? It's inconsistent to do .../Colors/Red and not .../Types/Pen so I'd just leave the "Colors" and "Types" qualifiers out altogether.

I'd define your ShowItems() method like this:

public ActionResult ShowItems(string color, string type)

this will allow you to have a route like /Products/Red/Pen where your route maps to this ShowItems() method. But you'll still need to differentiate that from the ShowTypesForColor() method where it also takes a first parameter of color. The routing framework will just treat type as null - for the route that has both tokens, make sure you have a route constraint specifying that neither color nor type can be null/empty (i.e., for the ShowItems() route).