ActionLink with routeValues creates old-skool style URL

Question

Dear SO surfers,

I have a route defined as such:

    routes.MapRoute(
        "CustomerWithScreenName", // Route name
        "Customer/{sn}/{action}", // e.g. Customer/KingKong89/Schedule
        new { controller = "Customer", action = "Signup", id = "" } // Parameter defaults
    );

But when I formulate a link using ActionLink like this:

<%: Html.ActionLink("Click here", "Schedule", "Customer", new { sn = "KingKong89", new { @class="topLink" } )%>

The resulting hyperlink/URL comes out like this:

http://localhost:65071/Customer/Schedule?sn=KingKong89

It works but I expected ActionLink to use the known routes and construct the correct link which would be:

http://localhost:65071/Customer/KingKong89/Schedule

Is my expectation wrong? Is it the parametered URL how it should work?

Note: I don't specify {controller} in the route. I can't seem to mix this route with the more orthodox {controller}{action}{id} route - maybe I should stop trying to be clever and adopt the convention.

Thanks for your help. Luke.

UPDATE

I have a theory that without a proper route (including the {controller} special keyword), I won't be able to make ActionLink produce proper URLs.

So I'm now turning my sights on why this simple route doesn't work:

routes.MapRoute(
        "ControllerWithScreenName", // Route name
        "{controller}/{sn}/{action}", // e.g. Customer/Dave/Schedule
        new { controller = "Customer", action = "Signup", sn = "" } // Parameter defaults
        );

As the only route, along with the default "Root", it doesn't play ball. If the controller name is added specifically (as in the first snippet above) it does.

UPDATE 2

Due to time constraints, I'm giving up on my param-before-action style URL and going back to the default controller\action\param - its a small thing in the grand scheme of making progress and not feeling frustrated and depressed.

UPDATE 3

I'm going to uncomment all my smart-ass routes and try using a RouteLink and specify the type of route to use. I think this is the raison d'etre of the RouteLink comment.

UPDATE 4

This is no good. This requires the app has knowledge of the routes to take which means I lose the option to just alter the routing in future and have all the links update automatically.

Answer 1

First thing, you are defining your route with an unused parameter, you should define your route like this

routes.MapRoute(
    "CustomerWithScreenName", // Route name
    "Customer/{sn}/{action}", // e.g. Customer/KingKong89/Schedule
    new { controller = "Customer", action = "Signup", sn= "" } // Parameter defaults
);

The sn in your definition is not defined in your parameters instead you are defining id. Define your Route before the Default Route.

Second, your ActionLink should look like this

<%= Html.ActionLink("Click here", "Schedule", "Customer", new { sn = "KingKong89" }, new { @class = "topLink" })%>

Lastly, in your Controller, your parameter for your Action Method Schedule should be sn not id

public ActionResult Schedule(string sn)
{
    return View();
}