.NET MVC 4 : How to set a Partial View shared in multiple Views of different Controllers

Question

Describing my problem with a school example; Say there is a Main Menu in _Layout.chtml with links of few classes, i.e. Class 1, Class 2, Class 3,... Each link shows a list of students in a Grid and each Row has some Edit link. That link lands us on Edit screen for Student records.

Now Student properties to be edited are categorized in multiple sections i.e. Personal, Educational, Sports, Transport. So there need to a Menu to be displayed on left column for each category of Student properties. Each category has its own Controller, Service & Repository. So the Links in the Menu need to send Student ID to the respective Controller, So it can fetch & create the specific properties Model of particular Student and send to View.

I wanted to be guided for how to put that Menu. Though I guess I am correct when written it in Partial View & included in each View of property set.

Problem is that the Link doesn't work when Controller name is added as below:

@Html.ActionLink("Sports Properties", "EditSportsProps", "SportsProperties", new {ID = Model.ID})

But works when Controller name is not added as below:

  @Html.ActionLink("Sports Properties", "EditSportsProps", new {ID = Model.ID})

Hence I am narrowed to put all functionality in same controller.

• Can't I link to different Controllers from a Partial View?
• Note that Student ID is required throughout, Is there a way to fetch it from route URL "ControllerName/ActionName/Id" in Controller? as ID is there in it.

Answer 1

There is no overload for ActionLink(HtmlHelper, String, String, String, Object)

You can use overload, LinkExtensions.ActionLink Method (HtmlHelper, String, String, String, Object, Object)

Thus change your code as, pass null for HTML attributes

@Html.ActionLink("Sports Properties", 
     "EditSportsProps", 
     "SportsProperties", 
     new {ID = Model.ID}, null)

For more info visit LinkExtensions.ActionLink

Note: When you are not putting controller name then it works because you are using ActionLink(HtmlHelper, String, String, Object) overload