Question

How can I just write

Response.Write("<a href='/someurl'>Some Text</a>");

Instead of

Response.Write(Html.ActionLink(...));

This reason I am after this is because I am writing a Pagination ViewUserControl. In the control I want it to show page numbers, next and previous pages etc.

When I use the following code

Response.Write(Html.ActionLink(page.ToString(), HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl, new { page = page }));

The link is written out as http://localhost:61293/customers/customers/System.Web.Mvc.UrlParameter/page2 which is obviously incorrect.

HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl == "/customers/" in this example. I would have expected that the resultant Url was then /customers/page2 as opposed to what is actually written out.

My routes are set up like so:

routes.MapRoute(
            "Default", // Route name
            "{controller}/{action}/{id}/page{page}", // URL with parameters
            new
            {
                controller = "Home",
                action = "Index",
                id = UrlParameter.Optional,
                page = UrlParameter.Optional
            } // Parameter defaults
        );

Can anyone shed some light?

Answer 1

Based on your update, you shouldn’t be using HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl as the action of your ActionLink.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd505040(v=VS.90).aspx

public static string ActionLink(
    this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
    string linkText,
    string actionName,
    object routeValues
)

As you can see, HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl will not match any of your actions. Try writing:

Html.ActionLink(page.ToString(), 
    "TheNameOfTheActionMethod", 
    new { page = page });