Question

I have this in my Global.asax.cs:

routes.MapRoute(
            "User",
            "User/{username}/{action}",
            new { controller = "User", action = "Index", username = "*" }
        );

Then on my _Layout.cshtml I have this code:

            <ul id="menu">
            @if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Context.User.Identity.Name))
            {
                <li>@Html.ActionLink("Home", "Home", new { controller = "User" }, new { username = Context.User.Identity.Name })</li>
            }


            </ul>

        </div>
    </div>

The thing is, it will render the link properly the first time it swings through here. (Link will be /User/rob/Home where “rob” is a username. If I navigate elsewhere on the page and then click back on my link, the link is rendered as /User/*/Home. When I step through the code, Context.User.Identity.Name is correct every time.

Am I missing something really basic here? I’m not sure what to search for.

Answer 1

That’s exactly what you should expect given that route. You don’t specify username in the route values dictionary but in the HTML attributes, so it takes the default from the route, *. You should be using the signature that allows you to specify both the controller and the action as strings with additional route values in the dictionary.

@if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Context.User.Identity.Name))
{
     <li>@Html.ActionLink("Home", "Home", "User" new { username = Context.User.Identity.Name }, null )</li>
}