asp.net mvc multi-parameter requests for dynamic images?

Question

In webforms, we would do somthing like this to set up a hander to generate a dyanmic image:

<img src="/barchart.aspx?width=1024&height=768&chartId=50" >

Then of course we would write code on the .aspx page to render the image using the parameters and write it back into the response.

I am honestly not sure how to set up/handle such a request with MVC and how we would activate it (in general terms) from a view.

any pointers or help in advance is greatly welcomed.

Answer 1

If I understand the situation correctly:

public class ImageGeneratorController : Controller {
    public ActionResult BarChart(int width, int height, int chartId) {
        // ASP.NET MVC will map the request parameters to method arguments
    }
}

To create a link:

Url.Action("BarChart", "ImageGenerator", new {
    width = 1024,
    height = 768,
    chartId = 50
});

Will output:

/ImageGenerator/BarChart?width=1024&height=768&chartId=50

Answer 2

You don't need a view to achieve this. You can have an action that returns a FileResult and write the image to the response like this :

public FileResult BarChart(int width, int height, int chartID) {
    //create the chart
    return new FileContentResult(byte[] fileContents, string contentType);
}

And the html :

<img src="/yourController/BarChart/1024/768/50">