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

a. Open Visual studio

b. Create new project

c. Select ASP.Net Web Application from Web tab

d. Give any name of the project. I am giving RoutingDemo for purpose of this article.

Step 2

a. Right click on the project

b. Add a new folder

c. 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

a. Right click on Model folder and select Add new item

b. 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

c. Click on Server Explorer

d. From the Server Explorer , right click on Data Connections and select add connection

e. 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.

f. From Server explorer, expand the NorthWind database connection. From table tab select Product and drag it in design surface

g. After dragging on the design surface NorthWindProduct.dbml file as below

h. 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

a. Right click on site.master in solution explorer. And add a content page

b. Now in solution explorer , you can notice you have WebForm.aspx

c. 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

a. Open AllProduct.aspx

b. 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. Crated 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

a. Open ParticularProduct.aspx

b. 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. Crated 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

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. Name space

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

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.