Question

I would like to render a list of HTML links in ASP.NET MVC. Note that the links are absolute and external to the website being designed. The following code works:

<% foreach (var item in Model) { %>

    <tr>
        <td>
            <%= Html.Encode(item.Id) %>
        </td>
        <td>
            <%= String.Format("<a href=\"{0}\">link</a>", item.Url) %>
        </td>
    </tr>

<% } %>

But I am wondering if it’s really the right approach. Am I missing some obvious MVC control here?

Answer 1

You are not missing anything but good approach is to create extender method on HtmlHelper:

public static class HtmlHelpers
    {

        public static string SimpleLink(this HtmlHelper html, string url, string text)
        {
            return String.Format("<a href=\"{0}\">{1}</a>", url, text);
        }

    }

then you can use it like this:

<tr>
        <td>
            <%= Html.Encode(item.Id) %>
        </td>
        <td>
            <%= Html.SimpleLink(item.Url,item.Text) %>
        </td>
    </tr>

[edit] I forgot to add. In order to use this HtmlHelper extender throughout application you need to add the following in the web config file:

<system.web>
      <pages>
         <namespaces>
            <!-- leave rest as-is -->
            <add namespace="theNamespaceWhereHtmlHelpersClassIs"/>
        </namespaces>
      </pages>
    </system.web>