How to pass Area in Url.Action?

Question

The problem in Html.ActionLink() is that you can't add additional html content inside the tag that it generates. For example, if you want to add an icon besides the text like:

<a href="/Admin/Users"><i class="fa fa-users"></i> Go to Users</a>

Using Html.ActionLink(), you can only generate:

<a href="/Admin/Users">Go to Users</a>

So, to resolve this, you can use Url.Action() to generate only the URL inside the tag like:

// Here, Url.Action could not generate the URL "/admin/users". So this doesn't work.
<a href="@Url.Action("", "Users", "Admin")"><i class="fa fa-usesr"></i> Go to Users</a>

// This works, as we know it but won't pass the Area needed.
<a href="@Url.Action("", "Users")"><i class="fa fa-users"></i> Go to Users</a>

So, how do you pass the Area using Url.Action()?

Answer 1

You can use this Url.Action("actionName", "controllerName", new { Area = "areaName" });

Also don't forget to add the namespace of the controller to avoid a conflict between the admin area controller names and the site controller names.

Something like this

 public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
        {
            context.MapRoute(
                "Admin_default",
                "Admin/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
                  new[] { "Site.Mvc.Areas.Admin.Controllers" }
            );
        }

Answer 2

@Url.Action("{action}", "{controller}", new { Area = "areaname" });
@Html.ActionLink("LinkName", "{action}", "{controller}", new { area = "{areaname}" }, new { @class = "btn btn-cool" })

write area name as html attribute with anonymus object. you can use actionlink html helper extension method to achieve same thing.