for loop statement outputs that links to differnent controllers in asp.net mvc

Question

i have a looping statement in in my homepage for news..

I have these codes..

Model :

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System.Data

Public Class ClassNewsConnection

    Inherits ClassConnection

    'Featured News for Home Page

    Public Function NewsFeatureHome() As DataTable
        Return ReadData("SELECT * FROM news WHERE newsFeature = '" & 1 & "' ORDER BY newsID DESC LIMIT 3  ")
    End Function


End Class

Controller :

Public Class HomeController
    Inherits Global.System.Web.Mvc.Controller
    Private News As New ClassNewsConnection
    Private Announcement As New ClassAnnouncementConnection
    Private Process As New ClassHTML

Function Index() As ActionResult
        Dim dNews As DataTable = News.NewsFeatureHome()

        For dCount As Integer = 0 To dNews.Rows.Count - 1
            dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsTitle") = Process.ToHTML(dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsTitle"))
            dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsContent") = Process.ToHTML(dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsContent"))
        Next
        Return View(dData)
    End Function

End Class

View :

<%@ Page Title="" Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/SiteMasterPage.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
    Home
</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">

    <h2>Index</h2>

    <div>

        <label for="News">News</label>
        <%Dim dNews As DataTable = ViewData.Model%>
        <%Dim id As Integer%>
        <%Dim dTitle As String%>

        <%For dCount As Integer = 0 To dNews.Rows.Count - 1%>
        <%Dim dContent As String = dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsContent")%>
        <%id = dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsID")%>

        <p>
        <%dTitle = dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsTitle")%>
        <%=Html.ActionLink(dTitle, "__________", New With {id}, DBNull.Value)%>
        <img src='<%=Url.Content("~/NewsImages/" + dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsThumbnail")) %>' alt="" />

        <%If dContent.Length > 100 Then%>
            <%dContent = dContent.Substring(0, dContent.IndexOf("", 300)) & "..."%>
        <%Else%>
            <%dContent = dContent%>
        <%End If%>

        <%=Html.ActionLink("Read More", "__________", New With {id}, DBNull.Value)%>
        </p>

        <%Next%>
    </div>

</asp:Content>

the for loop statement outputs different news from different controllers and views.. Example, the first output could render this page : Community/CommunityNews/7 the second output could render this page : Athletics/AthleticsNews/5 the third output could render this page : Programs/ProgramsNews/2

how would i make the code for the link to those pages? will i use javascript?the problem is, i'm not that so familiar with javascript :( help please.. thank you! thank you!

Answer 1

You should be able to generate the second argument for the ActionLink method, based on a news type field or similar in your table. e.g.

<%
Dim newsType As String = dNews.Rows(dCount).Item("newsType")

Dim controllerName As String
Dim actionName as String

' I'm guessing you have a field similar to this:
If (newsType = "Com. News") then
  controllerName = "Community"
  actionName = "CommunityNews"
End If

If (newsType = "Ath. News") then 
  controllerName = "Athletics"
  actionName = "AthleticsNews"
End If
%>

<%=Html.ActionLink(dTitle, actionName, controllerName, New With {Id = id})%>

This should do the trick, but I would start to worry that there is getting to be too much code in the view. It might not be a good idea to pass DataTables in as your model, but it could take a lot of work to change that at this point.

You could create a helper method that will return the controller and action for a certain news type, or better yet, generate a link given the news type. You can do that by creating a class with extension methods for the HtmlHelper class. That method would look similar to this:

<Extension()> _
Public Sub NewsLink(ByVal htmlHelper As HtmlHelper, newsType as string, linkText As String, id As int)

    Dim action As String
    Dim controller As String

    'todo: logic to get action and controller names from news type

    return htmlHelper.ActionLink(linkText, action, controller, New With {Id = id})
End Sub

Good luck. I think there are less people using VB.NET than C# with MVC.

Answer 2

I assume that this part of your view code is where you have a problem?

Html.ActionLink(dTitle, "__________", New With {id}, DBNull.Value)

The DBNull.Value looks really strange. Did you mean Null?

Anyway, you should be able to use an overload like this:

Html.ActionLink(dTitle, "CommunityNews", "Community", New With {id}, Null)

Don't use JavaScript for this.