ASP.NET MVC - URL Routing parameter question

Question

I have this route declaration:

routes.MapRoute(
                // Route name
                "WhiteLabelPartners",
                // URL with parameters
                "partners/{partnerName}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                // Parameter defaults
                new { partnerName = "", controller = "", action = "index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
                );

When I try this URL:

/partners/a/savings/index/1

...it works fine. The index action of the Savings controller is hit.

But, when I try this URL:

/partners/a/savings/index

I get a "not found".

If I have a UrlParameter.Optional for the {id} parameter, why is it still being required?

Could anyone explain? How can I make the {id} parameter optional?

Thanks

Answer 1

Make sure your Index Action does not expect a parameter.

If, on your controller, your Index action looks like this : public ActionResult Index(int id)

it will need a param to be passed in the ID field, as you are not providing a default value in the route. That's probably why you are getting the 'not found'error as it cannot find a matching action. It is expecting :

public ActionResult Index()

You could leave the Index() action without a parameter and from within the Index() action, retrieve the value of the passed in 'id' parameter, if any via :

RouteData.Values["id"]

to use it. Let us know if that works for you.

(note: i wanted to post a comment like tejs(but dont see a link to add comment?!), to ask you to show your Index method signature on the controller, so please do include that in the question.)