c# - mvc Html.BeginForm different URL schema

Question

I'm creating a form for a DropDown like this:

@{
    Html.BeginForm("View", "Stations", FormMethod.Get);
}
@Html.DropDownList("id", new SelectList(ViewBag.Stations, "Id", "Name"), new { onchange = "this.form.submit();" })
@{
    Html.EndForm();
}

If I choose a value from my dropdown I get redirected to the correct controller but the URL is not as I would like to have it:

/Stations/View?id=f2cecc62-7c8c-498d-b6b6-60d48a862c1c

What I want is:

/Stations/View/f2cecc62-7c8c-498d-b6b6-60d48a862c1c

So how do I get the id= querystring parameter replaced by the more simple URL Scheme I want?

Answer 1

A form with FormMethod.Get will always post back the values of its form controls as query string values. A browser cannot generate a url based on your route configurations because they are server side code.

If you really wanted to generate /Stations/View/f2cecc62-7c8c-498d-b6b6-60d48a862c1c, then you could use javascript/jquery to build your own url and redirect

@using (Html.BeginForm("View", "Stations", FormMethod.Get))
{
    @Html.DropDownList("id", new SelectList(ViewBag.Stations, "Id", "Name"))
}

var baseUrl = '@Url.Action("View", "Stations")';
$('#id').change(function() {
    location.href = baseUrl + '/' $(this).val();
});

Side note: Submitting on the .change() event is not expected behavior and is confusing to a user. Recommend you add a button to let the user make their selection, check it and then submit the form (handle the button's .click() event rather that the dropdownlist's .change() event)