Redirect user to from a SEO like url to a controller action in ASP.NET MVC 2

Question

is it possible to redirect a static seo "friendly" url address to a controller/action without loosing the original address?

For example:

if you navigate to http://localhost/find-the-best-employees
under the hood MVC takes you to http://localhost/Search/Employees (SearchEmployee controller, Index action). But the idea is to keep the address http://localhost/find-the-best-employees.

How can I make this work on ASP.NET MVC 2.0?

I was having a look at here and here with no luck during tests.

It is not only possible but it's also one of the great features of ASP.NET MVC. The fact that you can map your URLs to any controller/action (rather than having the URL dictate the class/file to render) is a great feature. The solution that @JOBG suggests looks correct. — Hector Correa, Jun 23 '11 at 13:26

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 23 '11 at 03:28

In Global.asax define a route like:

 routes.MapRoute(
                   "findEmployess",                                              // Route name
                   "find-the-best-employees",                           // URL with parameters
                   new { controller = "SearchEmployee", action = "Index" }  // Parameter defaults
               );

For this to work you need to use the route-name when generating the url, using this html helper

<%: Html.RouteLink("Search Employees","findEmployess")%>

Also you need to define this route before the default route:

//Your custom routes goes HERE before the default route

routes.MapRoute(
                "Default", // Route name
                "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
                new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
            );

Redirect user to from a SEO like url to a controller action in ASP.NET MVC 2

1 Answers1