Question

I created the following helper in my main directory under /Helpers:

HtmlHelpers.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Mvc.Html;

namespace Website.Helpers
{
    public static class HtmlHelpers
    {
        public static MvcHtmlString ActiveActionLinkHelper(this HtmlHelper Html, string text, string action, string controller, string activeClass = "active", bool actionCheck = false)
        {
            if (Html.ViewContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("controller") == controller)
            {
                if (actionCheck)
                {
                    if (Html.ViewContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action") == action)
                        return Html.ActionLink(text, action, controller, new { Class = activeClass });
                }
                else
                {
                    return Html.ActionLink(text, action, controller, new { Class = activeClass });
                }
            }

            return Html.ActionLink(text, action, controller);
        }
    }
}

I added the namespace to the Views web.config in my Publishers Areas folder:

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="Website.Helpers" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

I keep getting this message:
Compiler Error Message: CS1061: ‘System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper’ does not contain a definition for ‘ActiveActionLink’ and no extension method ‘ActiveActionLink’ accepting a first argument of type ‘System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper’ could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Core: @Html.ActiveActionLink(“Dashboard”, “Index”, “Dashboard”)

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? There are hardly any tutorials on how or where to store an HTML helper. Can someone please advise me?

Answer 1

Core: @Html.ActiveActionLink(“Dashboard”, “Index”, “Dashboard”) // here it is the problem

as your method is ActiveActionLinkHelper, your calling different method.

@Html.ActiveActionLinkHelper("Dashboard", "Index", "Dashboard") // try like this.