Adding "active" tag to navigation list in an asp.net mvc master page

Question

In the default asp.net mvc project, in the Site.Master file, there is a menu navigation list: ```

``` This renders in the browser to: ```

``` I want to be able to dynamically set the active list item, based on the view that is being called. That is, when the user is looking at the home page, I would want the following HTML to be created: ```

``` I would expect that the way to do this would be something like: ```

Accepted Answer

I made myself a helper method to handle this type of thing. In the code behind of my master page (could be pushed of to an extension method ... probably a better approach), I put the following code.

```
protected string ActiveActionLinkHelper(string linkText, string actionName, string controlName, string activeClassName)
{
    if (ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString() == actionName && 
            ViewContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString() == controlName)
        return Html.ActionLink(linkText, actionName, controlName, new { Class = activeClassName });

return Html.ActionLink(linkText, actionName, controlName);
}
```

Then, I just call it in my page like so:

```
<%= ActiveActionLinkHelper("Home", "Index", "Home", "selected")%>
```

Adding "active" tag to navigation list in an asp.net mvc master page

Solution

Problem