Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC application that has one part where I dont really want to use the auto url feature. I have a significant number of OPTIONAL parameters that need to pass in. This is basically for a complex query form… and a parameter that is not in use (i.e. has the default value) should please not be part of the URL. I love the URL routing for all other elements, but it is really not appropriate here. It does not reall make things more readable to have 20 or so fields in the URL, with 17 being empty.

The main problem I have is the generaton of the action link. On the partial view that is the query editor I want to have an action link generated that points to the results page. They both share the same model (and all parameters are properties).

Is there a method that can generate me the query string parameters to use starting from the model? The othe rway (binding fields to model properties) is already in by default, but I need a way to generate the query string…. preferably automatically.

Answer 1

What you are describing sounds like a simple if tree:

StringBuilder myQueryString = new StringBuilder();

if (parameter1 != null)
    myQueryString.Append("&Parameter1=" + parameter1.ToString());

if (parameter2 != null)
    myQueryString.Append("&Parameter2=" + parameter2.ToString());

Assuming at least one parameter is already in the querystring, of course.