How can I get just href part of Html.ActionLink result text

Question

As you know,

<%=Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index") %>

generates html like this : <a href="/Content/Index">Back To List</a>

But I need just href part.

I will use it in JS code and I do not want to write manually.

Can I gerenate what I need part ?

Answer 1

Try this

<%=Url.Action("Action","Controller")%>

Answer 2

Mathias's answer is what I use. ASP.NET MVC 2 gives you strongly types Url.Action too.

I find this most useful in javascript so:

<script type="text/javascript">
   var urlToPostTo = '<%= Url.Action<HomeController>(h => h.ContactUs()) %>';
   var someData = 'Some valuable data!';
   $.post(urlToPostTo, someData, function()
   {
      alert('Successfully posted some data to some url');
   });
</script>

This allows you to avoid putting hardcoded paths in your markup, leaving you with a slightly more maintainable solution.

That said, I'm still hoping that these will be compile time checked as normal when MVC 2 is finally released.