Routes with multiple arguments in ASP.NET MVC 3

Question

I am trying to set up dynamic routes in an MVC app, and I have this so far...

string conString = "YATAYATAYATA";
 SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(conString);
 SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();
 // Retrieve routes from database
 cmd.CommandText = "SELECT R.*,S.* FROM Routes R INNER JOIN Sites S ON S.ID = R.SiteID WHERE S.ID = 1";
 cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
 cmd.Connection = con;
 con.Open();
 SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
 while (rdr.Read())
 {
 routes.MapRoute(
 rdr["name"].ToString(), // Route name
 rdr["url"].ToString(), // URL with parameters
 new
 {
 controller = rdr["controller"].ToString(), // Controller name
 action = rdr["action"].ToString(), // Action name
 id = UrlParameter.Optional // Parameter defaults
 } 
 );
 }

And that is working great for now, the only issue I am having is that I would like to have the ability to specify a comma delimited list of optional arguments in the database that I could pull out like...

Array optParams = rdr["parametersOpt"].ToString().Split(',');

But I was not sure how to stick those params into the route object properly. Could just be a minor C# syntax I am not familiar with.

• SLaks: You should accept answers to your questions.
• jcreamer898: Oops...I guess I forgot to do that...Thanks! I am clearly a noob...

Answer 1

I very well may be wrong, but I believe you can use IDictionary<string, object> for the 3rd parameter to MapRoute instead of an anonymous object (MSDN documentation is unusually sparse for MVC).

I tried to whip up a test proj quick and it seems to work.

Here's what your code would look like if you tried to use a dictionary (again, I'm not certain this will work):

 while (rdr.Read()) {
 var defaults = new Dictionary<string, object>() {
 {"controller", rdr["controller"].ToString()},
 {"action", rdr["action"].ToString()},
 {"id", UrlParameter.Optional}
 };
 foreach (var param in rdr["parametersOpt"].ToString().Split(',')) {
 defaults.Add(param, UrlParameter.Optional);
 }
 routes.MapRoute(
 rdr["name"].ToString(), // Route name
 rdr["url"].ToString(), // URL with parameters
 defaults
 );
 }

• jcreamer898: Would you mind a quick sample of what you used? That would be great!
• quentin-starin: edited my answer. I'm still not totally certain a dictionary can be used in place of the anonymous object. If it can, this should work .. if I understand what you're doing with the parameters correctly.
• quentin-starin: I had one typo - mistakenly quoted the param variable. I've fixed it in my answer.

Answer 2

Thanks to @qstarin I was pointed in the right thought process...

After much trouble and hardship...

while (rdr.Read())
 {
 Route invRoute = new Route(rdr["url"].ToString(), new MvcRouteHandler());
 RouteValueDictionary defaults = new RouteValueDictionary();
 defaults.Add("controller", rdr["controller"].ToString());
 defaults.Add("action", rdr["action"].ToString());
 Array arrParams = rdr["parametersOpt"].ToString().Split(',');
 foreach (string i in arrParams)
 {
 defaults.Add(i, UrlParameter.Optional);
 }
 invRoute.Defaults = defaults;
 routes.Add(rdr["name"].ToString(), invRoute);
 }

This was my solution...