MVC 4.5 URL.Action and routes

Question

I started by making an UrlHelperExtension class that built my url likes this

"/Home/DownloadFiles?directory="+directory+"&filename"+HttpUtility.UrlEncode(filename)

But i figure why not use mvc to build my URLs so in my view i did

href="@Url.Action("DownloadFiles","Home", new {directory = "files", filename="1.mp3"}"

but that's outputting /Home/DownloadFiles/files/1.mp3 which can't find the file (i get a 404). my action method is

public ActionResult DownloadFiles(string directory, string filename){
  //log which file is downloaded by who
  //Add download header content-disposition attachement
  //Send response with the file
  return null;
}

and my only route looks like this

routes.MapRoute(
  name:"Default",
  url: "{controller}/{action}/{directory}/{filename}",
  defaults: new {controller = "Home", action = "Index", directory = UrlParameter.Optional, filename = UrlParameter.Optional}
)

I think i have some issues really understanding routes because i'm not sure how to fix this so i dont have to use my extension class which really doesn't do much. Maybe i shouldn't use URL.Action ? Would Url.Action UrlEncode the filename parameter ? the directory parameter is only 1 "deep" so it can't be abc/def only abc and i add to it relevant part so im not worried about UrlEncoding it.

Answer 1

You're getting a 404, not because you have an issue with your routes (they look fine), but because the path /Home/DownloadFiles/files/282.mp3 is being processed as a static file, which of course does not exist.

Try adding the following to your web.config

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

---

Update

If performance is an issue. Add this to your web.config instead:

<system.webServer>
  <handlers>
    <add name="Mp3FileHandler" path="*.mp3" verb="GET" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
  </handlers>
</system.webServer>