Asp.Net Mvc highlighting current page link technique?

Question

I need to highlight active link in the menu. My menu is in the master page by the way. I'm looking for the best way to implement this? Any ideas?

Answer 1

The best way to handle this is to write an HTML helper. You could use RouteData.Values["action"] to get the currently executing action and compare to the menu name and if they match apply a CSS class that will highlight it.

public static MvcHtmlString MenuItem(
    this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, 
    string action, 
    string text
)
{
    var menu = new TagBuilder("div");
    var currentAction = (string)htmlHelper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"];
    if (string.Equals(
            currentAction, 
            action,
            StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)
    )
    {
        menu.AddCssClass("highlight");
    }
    menu.SetInnerText(text);
    return MvcHtmlString.Create(menu.ToString());
}

And then use this helper to render the menu items:

<%: Html.MenuItem("about", "About us") %>
<%: Html.MenuItem("contact", "Contact us") %>
...

Answer 2

I am always using this solution Html Part

<ul>
   @Html.ListItemAction("Home Page","Index","Home")
   @Html.ListItemAction("Manage","Index","Home")
</ul>

Helper Part

 public static class ActiveLinkHelper
    { 
      public static MvcHtmlString ListItemAction(this HtmlHelper helper, string name, string actionName, string controllerName)
      {
        var currentControllerName = (string)helper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["controller"];
        var currentActionName = (string)helper.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"];
        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.AppendFormat("<li{0}", (currentControllerName.Equals(controllerName, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) &&
                                            currentActionName.Equals(actionName, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)
                                                ? " class=\"active\">" : ">"));
        var url = new UrlHelper(HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext);
        sb.AppendFormat("<a href=\"{0}\">{1}</a>", url.Action(actionName, controllerName), name);
        sb.Append("</li>");
        return new MvcHtmlString(sb.ToString());
   }
}

Answer 3

I use this solution:

First - add attribute data-menuPageId to your menu links

<ul class="menu">
   <li data-menuPageId="home">
            @(Html.Link<HomeController>(x => x.Index(), "Home"))
   </li>
   <li data-menuPageId="products">
            @(Html.Link<ProductsController>(x => x.Index(), "Products"))
   </li>
</li>

Next - add hidden field for current page Id to Layout.cshtml

<input type="hidden" id="currentPageId" value="@(ViewBag.Page ?? "home")" />

Add ViewBag.Page initializtion at your pages like Home or Products

@{
    ViewBag.Page = "products";
}

And last thing you should reference this javascipt from yor Layout.cshtml

$(function() {
    var pageIdAttr = "data-menuPageId";
    var currentPage = $("#currentPageId").attr("value");

    var menu = $(".menu");

    $("a[" + pageIdAttr + "]").removeClass("selected");
    $("a[" + pageIdAttr + "=\"" + currentPage + "\"]", menu).addClass("selected");
});