ASP.NET MVC : Empty ActionLinks appearing

Question

I'm using a default route, so that I don't need to specify the controller.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default", 
    "{action}/{id}", 
     new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

With this, I can create URLs like myapp.com/Customers rather than myapp.com/Home/Customers

When I test locally, everything is fine. When I upload a live version, any links generated with Html.ActionLink are empty. I know I'm using Html.ActionLink correctly, because it works fine locally:

//                   Title                 Action      Controller
<%: Html.ActionLink("Manage My Settings", "Settings", "Home") %>

I've removed all routes but the default, tried specifying ActionLink with and without the controller etc. I even tried reverting to having the controller in the route, e.g:

"{controller}/{action}/{id}"

Nothing works live. Everything works locally. Going slightly mad.

UPDATE:

OK, made a strange discovery. I actually had another optional UrlParameter after id, called page. I stupidly didn't include it in the example because I thought it made no difference. If I take it out, things seem to work.

So, actually, this works:

routes.MapRoute(
   "Default", 
   "{controller}/{action}/{id}", 
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

and this works!

routes.MapRoute(
   "Default", 
   "{action}/{id}", 
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

but this does Not work

routes.MapRoute(
   "Default", 
   "{action}/{id}/{page}", 
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", 
    id = UrlParameter.Optional, page = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

Why Not?

on wich version of IIS you have been deployed application the same as localy? — Sergey K, Jan 18 '12 at 14:08
IIS6 on the server, and locally its whatever internal server Visual Studio 2010 runs, which I believe is IIS 7.5 — roryok, Jan 18 '12 at 14:23
I don't think this is the issue. Routing has worked just fine on this app. its only the Html.ActionLink() that's causing a problem — roryok, Jan 18 '12 at 14:31
are you trying other url for example <%:Html.ActionLink("some","Register","Account") %> this link would not work on local I think you should change your routing — Sergey K, Jan 18 '12 at 15:02
Has it ever worked on IIS6 before? Before you dismiss Serghei's answer you should follow those steps. MVC doesn't work on IIS 6 out of the box. — Dismissile, Jan 18 '12 at 15:08
Can you clarify what you mean by "empty"? Do the links look like this? Manage My Settings — Peter, Jan 18 '12 at 15:09
@Serghei: actually that would work, as I have another controller called Account =) but I will try a non-existant one and see what happens — roryok, Jan 19 '12 at 10:08
dismissile: the server its running on has already been set up to run a number of MVC apps, which work fine. — roryok, Jan 19 '12 at 10:11
just updated... I had an extra UrlParameter which I stupidly forgot to mention... — roryok, Jan 19 '12 at 10:39

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '12 at 10:46

Found the answer! There's a bug in MVC3 when using two consecutive optional UrlParameters, as detailed by Phil Haack, here routing-regression-with-two-consecutive-optional-url-parameters

You need to first declare a version of the route with only one optional parameter. So

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

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

Seems really obvious now. If I'd actually included all the details I'm sure Serghei or someone else would have seen the problem, so thanks for all the help guys!

O M G. Thank you so much. I spent an hour trying to figure this out. I thought it was caused by a sub domain. — The Muffin Man, Jun 24 '12 at 00:09
This helped me too. See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25782089/html-actionlink-not-working-in-production-environment/26024843 — askrich, Sep 25 '14 at 09:50

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 18 '12 at 14:27

1

look at the article in which is explayned how to deploy ASP.NET MVC Application on IIS6

answered Jan 18 '12 at 14:27

Sergey K

4,071
2
23
34

ASP.NET MVC : Empty ActionLinks appearing

2 Answers2

Linked