Calling Html.ActionLink in a custom HTML helper

Question

I am designing a custom HTML helper and I would like to execute Html.ActionLink to provide dynamic URL generation.

    namespace MagieMVC.Helpers     {         public static class HtmlHelperExtension         {             public static string LinkTable(this HtmlHelper helper, List<Method> items)             {                 string result = String.Empty;                  foreach (Method m in items)                 {                     result += String.Format(                         "<label class=\"label2\">{0}</label>" +                         System.Web.Mvc.Html.ActionLink(...) +                         "<br />",                         m.Category.Name,m.ID, m.Name);                 }                  return result;             }     } } 

Unfortunately Html.ActionLink is not recognized in this context whatever the namespace I have tried to declare.

As a generic question, I would like to know if it is possible to use any existing standard/custom Html helper method when designing a new custom helper.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't you have the helper already?

helper.ActionLink("text", "actionName"); 

Don't forget to include using System.Web.Mvc.Html namespace.

And yes, you could use the existing extension methods as long as you included the necessary namespaces.

Answer 2

FYI, for MVC 3, I found the ActionLink here:

System.Web.Mvc.Html.LinkExtensions.ActionLink(text, action, controller).ToHtmlString();