CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.net-mvcweb-applications
MacSalty
MacSalty

Reputation: 1252

Getting the current URL within the View layer in ASP.net MVC

I've read some previous questions here and on other sites, but being new to ASP.net and MVC I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the information presented.

I want/need/was told to get the current URL of the page I'm on through the View layer, and use that information to apply an id to a li tag allowing for specific css. We've moved our left navigation bar from being embedded in every single page (done by a previous co-op) to putting the list in a partial view that I'm going to call on all of the required pages. Styling requirements for the site have a specific highlight on the left navigation a tag of the page the user is currently on.

Some of the examples I've read including using:

<%= Request.Url.PathAndQuery %>

Request.Url.ToString() or Request.Url.AbsoluteUri

var request = HttpContext.Current.Request

but I know not all of them can be used in the View layer. What would be the best approach? Are there any tutorials that I haven't been able to find yet that anyone could recommend?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 10759

Answers (2)

WeekendHacker
WeekendHacker

Reputation: 316

I was looking for a solution on this for asp.net 3.0 and found the following to give direct access to the URL path (what page you're currently loading/showing):

ViewContext.HttpContext.Request.Path

I'm using this in an if statement to decide dynamically between different View Imports, works very well.

Upvotes: 6

dom
dom

Reputation: 6842

It probably isn't the best idea, in my opinion, to use the URL for this.

Instead, a quick and easy way to achieve this is to use ViewContext.RouteData that will contain values for both the controller and action of the current request. It can be accessed from the view layer easily.

ViewContext.RouteData.Values["Controller"].ToString()
ViewContext.RouteData.Values["Action"].ToString()

So in your view you could do something like 

<ul class="nav">
    <li class="@(ViewContext.RouteData.Values["Controller"].ToString() == "ControllerName" ? "active" : "")"><a href="#">Foo</a></li>
</ul>

You could push it further to make it prettier, but you get the basic idea.

Upvotes: 12

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