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

Dhananjay Kumar
14y
60.7k
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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.

Select all Products (AllProduct.aspx) : This page will display all the Products
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

Put the namespace
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.
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

Put the namespace
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

Namespace
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
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

Drag two buttons from tool box and put on the page
Drag a text box and put on the page
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.

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