String based programming

I really don't like the coding style of using strings instead of identifiers... For example in MVC you can redirect to another action using

RedirectToAction("Index");

However, using the string "Index" instead of the name of the method (an action typically corresponds to a method in MVC right?!) make your code harder to maintain. Renaming the method will not rename the string for example. That is why I like to use

RedirectToAction(nameof(HomeController.Index))

However, this does not work with Controller names. Because of the way routing is implemented, using the full name of the controller confuses routing and you end up with an invalid Uri.

RedirectToAction(nameof(HomeController.Index), nameof(HomeController))

This problem is fixed by U2U.AspNetCore.Mvc.NameOf

U2U.AspNetCore.Mvc.NameOf

This package updates Mvc6 to allows the use of the nameof() keyword in your views

For example, instead of using strings for the name of the controller and action

<a asp-controller="Home" asp-action="Index" class="navbar-brand">Index</a>

you can use nameof()

<a asp-controller="@nameof(HomeController)" asp-action="@nameof(HomeController.Index)" class="navbar-brand">Index</a>

Setup

All you need to do extra is to add a using to your _ViewImports.cshtml

@using WebApplication2.Controllers

and in Startup.ConfigureServices add a call to AddNameOf after the call to AddMvc.

services.AddMvc();
services.AddNameOf();

Sources

I you're interested in how this packages works, it is available on github at https://github.com/PeterHimschoot/U2U.AspNetCore.Mvc.NameOf

Any bugs, remarks, etc... can always be sent to peter@u2u.be