ASP.NET MVC URL routing and paging with HTMLHelper - asp.net

Question

I have a route
routes.MapRoute(
"AlphaPagedContacts", // Route name
"Contact/Alpha{alpha}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Contact", action = "AlphaList", alpha = UrlParameter.Optional },
new { alpha = #"\A-Z" } // Parameter defaults
);
I'm trying to make the URL's display like
/Contact/AlphaA
/Contact/AlphaB
for contacts based on username. However, the URL's are showing up as: http://localhost:54568/Contact/AlphaList?alpha=H
My HTMLHelper is
#Html.AlphaLinks(new PagingModel { MaxPages = Model.MaxPages, CurrentLetter = Model.CurrentLetter, UrlGeneratorFunctionAlpha = i => Url.Action("AlphaList", new { alpha = i }) })
and my implementation is
public static MvcHtmlString AlphaLinks(this HtmlHelper helper, PagingModel model)
{
string[] letters = new string[] { "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z" };
var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder("<ul class='pager'>");
foreach (string letter in letters)
{
stringBuilder.Append(String.Format("<li {2}><a href='{1}'>{0}<a></li>", letter, model.UrlGeneratorFunctionAlpha(letter), letter == model.CurrentLetter ? "class=Selected" : String.Empty));
}
stringBuilder.Append("</ul>");
return MvcHtmlString.Create(stringBuilder.ToString());
}
My controller code for the actionresult is:
public ActionResult AlphaList(string alpha = "A")
{
var logic = new ContactBUS();
var pageSize = 10;
var usernames = from c in XDocument.Load(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/Contacts.xml")).Elements("Contact")
select new
{
Username = (string)c.Element("Username"),
Lastname = (string)c.Element("LastName"),
Firstname = (string)c.Element("FirstName"),
Email = (string)c.Element("Email"),
};
var model = new AlphaListContactViewModel
{
Contacts = logic.GetContacts().Skip(0).Take(20).ToList(),
CurrentLetter = alpha,
MaxPages = (int)Math.Ceiling(logic.GetContactsCount() / (double)pageSize)
};
return View(model);
}
Any idea why this is happening?
Also, I need to make it so that when the user clicks on a letter, it shows the contacts' usernames for that letter.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Do you have any other routes that come before the one we see here? The first route that matches wins.