Question

Should one create generic actions that can respond to different parameters or create different actions without parameters (if possible)?

The return type will always remain the same irrespective of which action is called. there wont be a case of different views etc.

What are the disadvantages/advantages of any of the above approaches?

Answer 1

Using parameters is a better approach because with each action, you need to have a different view. Performance wise there is no difference but maintenance wise it seems redundant to have two actions do the same thing and return same type of views.

For example, I will have one action and pass it the category name, rather than have a action for each category

Example code :-

public ActionResult Catalog(string id, int?page)
    {
        Category catalog = pe.Categories.Where(cat => cat.Name == id).Single();
        int pageIndex = page ?? 1;
        CatProView catProView = new CatProView
                                {
                                    Name = catalog.Name,
                                    SubCategories = catalog.SubCategories,
                                    PagedProducts = catalog.Products.ToPagedList(pageIndex, PageSize)
                                };
        return View(catProView);
    }