Question

What is the best way to replace links with images using Razor in MVC3. I simply doing this at the moment:

<a href="@Url.Action("Edit", new { id=MyId })"><img src="../../Content/Images/Image.bmp", alt="Edit" /></a> 

Is there a better way?

Answer 1

You can create an extension method for HtmlHelper to simplify the code in your CSHTML file. You could replace your tags with a method like this:

// Sample usage in CSHTML
@Html.ActionImage("Edit", new { id = MyId }, "~/Content/Images/Image.bmp", "Edit")

Here is a sample extension method for the code above:

// Extension method
public static MvcHtmlString ActionImage(this HtmlHelper html, string action, object routeValues, string imagePath, string alt)
{
    var url = new UrlHelper(html.ViewContext.RequestContext);

    // build the <img> tag
    var imgBuilder = new TagBuilder("img");
    imgBuilder.MergeAttribute("src", url.Content(imagePath));
    imgBuilder.MergeAttribute("alt", alt);
    string imgHtml = imgBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing);

    // build the <a> tag
    var anchorBuilder = new TagBuilder("a");
    anchorBuilder.MergeAttribute("href", url.Action(action, routeValues));
    anchorBuilder.InnerHtml = imgHtml; // include the <img> tag inside
    string anchorHtml = anchorBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal);

    return MvcHtmlString.Create(anchorHtml);
}