ASP.Net MVC4 Custom Routing

Question

I am currently trying to figure out how to change my blog's url rules.

Right now the URLs are /Blog/Details/1 but I read that it is a better SEO practice to make the URL /Blog/Details/Post-Title. I have created an extra field in my blog database labeled FriendlyUrl, and when I create a blog entry I replace spaces with dashes (-) but now I have no idea how to make my app work properly.

I was told to look to my global.asx.cs but this is what mine looks like.

public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication
{
    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

        WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
        FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
        BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
        AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();
    }
}

Here is my controller code for details

public ActionResult Details(int id = 0)
    {
        Blog blog = _db.Blogs.Find(id);
        if (blog == null)
        {
            return HttpNotFound();
        }
        return View(blog);
    }

and here is the link currently being used to link to a blog entry.

<a href="@Url.Action("Details", "Blog", new { id=item.Id})">@Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Title)</a>

Thanks in advance for any help.

Dave Alperovich · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-17 03:24:00Z

5

Put this route first in your app_start routing.cs file:

       routes.MapRoute(
            "Blog",
            "Blog/{id}",
            new { controller = "Details", action = "Blog", id=0 }
        );

So long as the Routing Engine finds this route first, any route that begins with Blog/ will be routed to Contoller Details and Action Blog.

If you want a more descriptive route that focuses on an SEO friendly slug, use this route:

       routes.MapRoute(
            "Blog",
            "Blog/{postid}/{slug}",
            new { controller = "Details", action = "Blog", id=0, slug="" } 
        );

any route that begins with Blog/{postid} will be routed to Contoller Details and Action Blog. When your action or action filters see a route that leaves the slug blank, look it up in the database and redirect your users to that URL.

So if, for example, you get a route like

/Blog/1287

you should redirect the user to

/Blog/1287/how-to-fix-your-routing-engine

This architecture is very similar to the design used by SO. Observe what happens if you try to go to

/questions/15593545/

you will find yourself at

/questions/15593545/asp-net-mvc4-custom-routing

Your Action method would now look like this

public ActionResult Blog (int postid, string slug)
{

edited May 17, 2014 at 3:24

answered Mar 24, 2013 at 0:13

Dave Alperovich

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2 Comments

G_Man Over a year ago

Can you expand a little on how I should modify my Controller and actual link. I am having issues getting it to work as described. Thanks again

Dave Alperovich Over a year ago

@GregGoodwin, take a look at my revised answer. Does this help?

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