Can I make ASP.NET MVC Html.RouteLink() return a url for my home page without an ID?

Question

I've got a single route in my Global.asax.vb page like this...

Shared Sub RegisterRoutes(ByVal routes As RouteCollection)
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}")
    routes.MapRoute( _
        "IdOnly", _
        "{id}", _
        New With {.controller = "Page", _
                  .action = "Details", _
                  .id = "7"} _
    )
End Sub

That id is for my home page. It's displayed when someone navigates to my: http://example.com/

But, this also works: http://example.com/7

I'd like to have no links anywhere on my site to the address with id of 7. But, the Html.RouteLink() function generates those.

For a view Model that's a child of the home page…

<%=Html.RouteLink(Model.Parent.Title, _
                  "IdOnly", _
                  New With {.id = Model.Parent.Id})%>

…generates the following anchor tag:

<a href="/7">Home</a>

How can I override the href generated by the Html.RouteLink() function for my home page?

mmx mmx · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-19T20:06:43

Add a new route before your "IdOnly" route for the home page:

routes.MapRoute( _
    "HomePage", _
    "", _
    New With {.controller = "Page", _
              .action = "Details", _
              .id = "7"} _
)

RouteLink will use the first matched mapping in the routing table to generate the link.

Can I make ASP.NET MVC Html.RouteLink() return a url for my home page without an ID?

1 Answers