Step by Step walk-through on URL routing in ASP.Net 4.0

Objective 

URL Routing is new feature in ASP.Net 4.0. This article will give a walkthrough on how to work with URL Routing and an introduction of that. 

URL Routing 

ASP.Net 4.0 URL Routing enables mapping between search engines optimized URL to physical web Form pages. 

For example 

http://localhost:36774/Products/All    URL will be mapped to http://localhost:36774/AllProduct.aspx

Here the first URL is more search engine optimized. Using the routing engine ASP.Net 4.0 perform URL mapping.

Follow the below steps  to see how to work with URL routing 

Step 1

• Open Visual studio 
• Create new project 
• Select ASP.Net Web Application from Web tab 
• Give any name of the project. I am giving RoutingDemo for purpose of this article. 

Step 2

• Right click on the project 
• Add a new folder 
  
  
  
• Give any name of your choice to the folder. I am giving name Model for purpose of this article 
  
  
  

So after creating a new folder, you can see Model folder in solution explorer. 

 

Step 3

• Right click on Model folder and select Add new item 
  
  
  
• From Data tab select Linq to SQL classes . Give any name of your choice. I am giving name here NorthWindProduct for purpose of this article 
  
  
  
• Click on  Server Explorer 
  
  
  
• From the Server Explorer ,  right click on Data Connections  and select add connection 
  
  
  
• Below pop window will come.   
  
  
  
  Give data base server name at first. Select the authentication mode, you use to connect to your database and then select NorthWind data base.  After giving these three fields click OK. 
• From Server explorer, expand the NorthWind database connection. From table tab select Product and drag it in design surface 
  
  
  
• After dragging on the design surface NorthWindProduct.dbml file as below 
  
  
  
• In solution explorer you can see inside Model folder three files.  There is a NorthWindProductDataContext class inside RoutingDemo.Model name space , we will be using as data context 
  
  
  

Step 4

We want to navigate to two different pages. 

1. Select all Products (AllProduct.aspx) : This page will display all the Products 
2. Select a particular product on basis of Product name. (ParticularProduct.aspx): This page will display product detail of given product name. 

Step 4a

• Right click on site.master in solution explorer.  And add a content page 
  
  
  
• Now in solution explorer , you can notice you have WebForm.aspx 
  
  
  
• Right click on WebForm.aspx and rename this to AllProduct.aspx  
  
  
  

After renaming the name, you will have AllProduct.aspx in solution explorer. 

Step 4B

Follow the steps exactly the same as step 4A and add one more web form. Give name of this form as ParticularProduct.aspx instead of AllProduct.aspx. So now in solution explorer you can see two web forms has been added.  

Step 4C

• Open AllProduct.aspx 
• Drag GridView from Data tab of tool box and put it on AllProduct.aspx 
  
  
  

So, in design AllPrduct.aspx will look as below,  

AllProduct.aspx will look like below, 

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="AllProduct.aspx.cs" Inherits="RoutingDemo.WebForm1" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="HeadContent" runat="server">

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server">

    </asp:GridView>

</asp:Content>

Now we need to write code to fetch data from LINQ to SQL class 

AllProduct.aspx.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using RoutingDemo.Model;

namespace RoutingDemo

{

    public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            GridView1.DataSource = Products;

            GridView1.DataBind();

        }

        private List<Product> _Product= null ;

        protected List<Product> Products

        {

            get

            {

                if (_Product == null)

                {

                    NorthWindProduct_DataContext context = new NorthWindProduct_DataContext();

                    return context.Products.ToList();

                }

                return _Product;

            }

        }

    }

}

Explanation of Code 

1. Put the namespace 
   
   
   
2. Created a protected property. In getter, I am checking for data member.  If it is null, then I am creating instance of NorthWindProduct and fetching all the products. 
   
   
   
3. On page load putting the property as data source of grid view. 
   
   
   

Step 4D

• Open ParticularProduct.aspx 
• Drag GridView from Data tab of tool box and put it on ParticularProduct.aspx 
  
  
  

So, in design ParticularProduct.aspx  will look as below, 

ParticularProduct.aspx will look like below, 

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="ParticularProduct.aspx.cs" Inherits="RoutingDemo.WebForm2" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="HeadContent" runat="server">

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">

    <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server">

    </asp:GridView>

</asp:Content>

Now we need to write code to fetch data from LINQ to SQL class 

ParticularProduct.aspx.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using RoutingDemo.Model;

namespace RoutingDemo

{

    public partial class WebForm2 : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            GridView1.DataSource = new Model.Product[]{ Products };

            GridView1.DataBind();

        }

        private Product _Product = null;

        protected Product Products

        {

            get

            {

                if (_Product == null)

                {

                    string prdName = Page.RouteData.Values["Name"] as string;

                    NorthWindProduct_DataContext context = new NorthWindProduct_DataContext();

                    return context.Products.Where(prd => prd.ProductName.Equals(prdName)).SingleOrDefault();

                }

                return _Product;

            }

        }

    }

}

Explanation of Code 

1. Put the namespace 
   
   
   
2. Created a protected property. In getter, I am checking for data member.  If it is null, then I am creating instance of NorthWindProduct and fetching product with the given name 
   
   
   

If you see the above code, I am using  

Here Name is the parameter name in the Route URL. 

Step 5

Now open Global.asax 

When you click on Global.ascx.cs . You will get below default code 

 

Now we need to add 

1. Namespace 
   
   
   
   
2. Method 
   
   
   
   In first mapPageRoute 
   
   All Product -> name of the rule in Global.ascx
   Products/All -> Routing URL 
   ~/AllProduct.aspx -> Name of the physical aspx file. 
   
   In second mapPageRoute 
   
   Selected Product -> name of the rule in Global.ascx 
   Products/Selected/ {name} -> Routing URL where name is the parameter 
   ~/ParticularProduct.aspx -> name of the physical file 
   
   
3. Call the above created method  in application start 
   
   
   

Global.ascx.cs 

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.SessionState;

using System.Web.Routing;

namespace RoutingDemo

{

    public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication

    {

        void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

        }

        void Application_End(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            //  Code that runs on application shutdown

        }

        void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            // Code that runs when an unhandled error occurs

        }

        void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            // Code that runs when a new session is started

        }

        void Session_End(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            // Code that runs when a session ends.

            // Note: The Session_End event is raised only when the sessionstate mode

            // is set to InProc in the Web.config file. If session mode is set to StateServer

            // or SQLServer, the event is not raised.

        }

        void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)

        {

            routes.MapPageRoute("All Product", "Products/All", "~/AllProduct.aspx");

            routes.MapPageRoute("Selected Product", "Products/Selected/{name}", "~/ParticularProduct.aspx");

        }

    }

}

Step 6

Step 6a

Now open default.aspx

1. Drag two buttons from tool box  and put on the page 
2. Drag a text box and put on the page 
3. Attach button click handler for both the button 

Default.aspx

<%@ Page Title="Home Page" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.master" AutoEventWireup="true"

    CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="RoutingDemo._Default" %>

<asp:Content ID="HeaderContent" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="HeadContent">

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="BodyContent" runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent">

    <h2>

        Welcome to ASP.NET 4.0 Routing Feature

    </h2>  

    <asp:Button ID="btnAllProducts" runat="server" Text="All Products"

        Width="129px" onclick="btnAllProducts_Click" /><br />

    <asp:Button ID="btnSelectedProduct" runat="server" Text="Select Product"

        onclick="btnSelectedProduct_Click" />   

    <asp:TextBox ID="txtSearch" runat="server" Width="167px"></asp:TextBox>

</asp:Content>

Step 6b

On click event of btnAllProducts 

 

There is no input parameter. 

On click event of btnSelectedProduct 

 

Here input parameter to navigate is in txtSearch text box. 

Default.aspx.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace RoutingDemo

{

    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            txtSearch.Text = "";

        }

        protected void btnAllProducts_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            Response.RedirectToRoute("All Product");

        }

        protected void btnSelectedProduct_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            Response.RedirectToRoute("Selected Product", new { name = txtSearch.Text });

        }

    }

}

Run the application 

 

If you notice the above output and URL in address bar, it is 

http://localhost:36774/Default.aspx

Now on clicking of All Products 

 

Now if you see the URL in address bar

http://localhost:36774/Products/All

And this URL is search engine optimized URL. 

In the same way when you click on Select Product button it will navigate to 

http://localhost:36774/Products/Selected/Chai 

Chai is the product name.

Conclusion 

In this article, we saw what Routing mapping feature of ASP.Net 4.0. I hope this article was useful. Thanks for reading. Happy coding.