Here it is:

Html.ActionLink("Display Text", "Action", "Controller", new { area = "Area" }, null);

I hope it helps someone!

First you need models. I chosed to do this example using a Country and State dropdown, so I’m going to build to Models (Country and State) with a little bit of fake data.

Lets start with the Country Model and Fake Data

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

namespace CascadingDDLjQueryDemo.Models
{
    public class Country
    {
        public string CountryCode { get; set; }
        public string CountryName { get; set; }

        public static IQueryable GetCountries()
        {
            return new List
            {
                new Country {
                    CountryCode = "CA",
                    CountryName = "Canada"
                },
                new Country{
                    CountryCode = "US",
                    CountryName = "United-States"
                }
            }.AsQueryable();
        }
    }
}

And now the State Model and Fake Data

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

namespace CascadingDDLjQueryDemo.Models
{
    public class State
    {
        public string CountryCode { get; set; }
        public int StateID { get; set; }
        public string StateName { get; set; }

        public static IQueryable GetStates()
        {
            return new List
            {
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=1,
                        StateName = "Ontario"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=2,
                        StateName = "Quebec"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=3,
                        StateName = "Nova Scotia"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=4,
                        StateName = "New Brunswick"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=5,
                        StateName = "Manitoba"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=6,
                        StateName = "British Columbia"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=7,
                        StateName = "Prince Edward Island"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=8,
                        StateName = "Saskatchewan"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=9,
                        StateName = "Alberta"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "CA",
                        StateID=10,
                        StateName = "Newfoundland and Labrador"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "US",
                        StateID=11,
                        StateName = "New-York"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "US",
                        StateID=12,
                        StateName = "California"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "US",
                        StateID=13,
                        StateName = "Washington"
                    },
                new State
                    {
                        CountryCode = "US",
                        StateID=14,
                        StateName = "Vermont"
                    }
            }.AsQueryable();
        }
    }
}

We can now add List methods in the controller. I chosed to return both Json and View so I could decide to make a page CountryList and use the same method.

using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using CascadingDDLjQueryDemo.Models;

namespace CascadingDDLjQueryDemo.Controllers
{
    [HandleError]
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View();
        }

        public ActionResult CountryList()
        {
            IQueryable countries =
                Country.GetCountries();

            if(HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest())
                return Json(new SelectList(
                                countries,
                                "CountryCode",
                                "CountryName")
                            );

            return View(countries);
        }

        public ActionResult StateList(string CountryCode)
        {
            IQueryable states = State.GetStates()
                .Where(x => x.CountryCode == CountryCode);

            if (HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest())
                return Json(new SelectList(
                                states,
                                "StateID",
                                "StateName")
                            );

            return View(states);
        }
    }
}

And now we require Routes to access this data

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;

namespace CascadingDDLjQueryDemo
{
    // Note: For instructions on enabling IIS6 or IIS7 classic mode,
    // visit http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=9394801

    public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
    {
        public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
        {
            routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

            routes.MapRoute(
                "StatesList",
                "Home/States/List/{CountryCode}",
                new { controller = "Home", action = "StateList", CountryCode = "" }
            );

            routes.MapRoute(
                "CountriesList",
                "Home/Countries/List",
                new { controller = "Home", action = "CountryList" }
            );

            routes.MapRoute(
                "Default",
                "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }
            );

        }

        protected void Application_Start()
        {
            RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
        }
    }
}

The Javavascript

$(function() {
        $.getJSON("/Home/Countries/List", function(data) {
            var items = "
---------------------

";
            $.each(data, function(i, country) {
                items += "
" + country.Text + "

";
            });
            $("#Countries").html(items);
        });

        $("#Countries").change(function() {
            $.getJSON("/Home/States/List/" + $("#Countries > option:selected").attr("value"), function(data) {
                var items = "
---------------------

";
                $.each(data, function(i, state) {
                    items += "
" + state.Text + "

";
                });
                $("#States").html(items);
            });
        });
    });

And finally, the Index View.

ASP.NET MVC Cascading DropDownList using jQuery

Countries


        States

You can find the source code here.

Here’s the Action Filter

    public class AjaxOnlyAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
    {
        public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
        {
            if(!filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest())
                filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Redirect("/error/404");
        }

        public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
        {

        }
    }

And an implementation example

    [AjaxOnly]
    public ActionResult AjaxActionMethod()
    {
        ....
    }

This might not be the best solution, but works pretty good for me so far!

Phil Haack, from Haacked.com, developed a small utility which displays the route data pulled from the request of the current request in the address bar.  At the bottom, it shows a list of all defined routes in your application. This allows you to see which of your routes would match the current URL.

All you need to do to start debugging your routes is add Phil Haack’s assembly to your bin folder and add one simple line to your Global.asax:

protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    RouteDebug.RouteDebugger.
        RewriteRoutesForTesting(RouteTable.Routes);
}

You can find Phil’s post here, along with the assembly and even the source code with a demonstration.

ASP.NET MVC Templates already have the required code and configuration to use the Authentication, so all we need to do is change the configuration to point to our Active Directory instead of SQL Express.

To do this you will need an accessible Active Directory and Visual Studio with MVC templates installed. I won’t show you how to install and configure AD here as I do not have this knowledge, yet!

1. Create a new ASP.NET MVC Web Application
   
2. Visual Studio will ask you if you want to create a test project, I usually work in TDD so I always say yes. You should now have 2 projects in your solution.
   
3. If you open the Web.Config file and locate the <connectionStrings>, you will notice there is already a connection; you can remove it and add a new one for you Active Directory.
   
4. Now locate the tags authentication, membership, profile, roleManager and remove them (or comment out). Insert these
   
5. Now run the solution and try it using an existing user. You will need to use username@domain for the authentication to work.

But before you can use this properly you will need to setup your database, which will be very easy because Microsoft shipped .NET 2.0 with a nice utility to do it! You can find this on your computer, at this path C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regsql.exe

Your database should have these tables:

Now lets tell our ASP.NET MVC Website’s configuration where to find this database. Open the web.config and change the ApplicationServices connection string to point to your SQL Server. You should now rebuild your solution to avoid any problems in the next step!

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="ApplicationServices"
         connectionString="Data Source=localhost;
                           Initial Catalog=database;
                           Persist Security Info=True;
                           User ID=user;
                           Password=password"
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
    />
</connectionStrings>

It’s all good and nice but now we need Users in this database otherwise it’s completly useless! So open up your ASP.NET MVC Solution in Visual Studio and go to Project » ASP.NET Configuration. This will open the ASP.NET Web Application Administration website. In the Security tab you can Add/Manage Users and Roles. For the moment, add a user so we can try the login. I’ve added user Mike.

You can now run your application and click on [ Log On ] at the top right corner of the page, this will redirect you the the logon form.

If you entered the correct credential you should be redirected to the home page of the site and you will see your name and a Log Off button instead of the Log On button.

Well congraticulations! You now have SqlMembershipProvider working on your website, wasn’t so hard, was it? Not a single line of code required! I’ll be posting again soon to show you how to use Roles in your applications.