Question

What is the best way to store a route according to all nice patterns?

We have a class that returns a list with menu items. These items are then rendered into the main menu. Once you hover over an item in the menu, an ajax call is made. This means that i have to store the path and parameters for this call in the menu item. What is the best way to store this information? I was thinking about a RouteValueDictionary but how can i convert one of those into a fully functioning route?

We are using Mvc 3 and C#.

Answer 1

This might work for you:

public class MenuItem
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public RouteValueDictionary RouteValues
    {
        get
        {
            return new RouteValueDictionary(
                new {
                    controller = "Pages",
                    action = this.Name
                });
        }
    }
}

In your view, you could do something like this:

<ul>
    @foreach (var menuItem in Model.MenuItems)
    {
        <li>@Html.RouteLink(menuItem.Name, menuItem.RouteValues)</li>
    }
</ul>

If all you need is the path, you can do this:

@Url.RouteUrl(menuItem.RouteValues)