AspNetMvc appends url when navigating between two different routes

Question

I have an area named adpan in my mvc site with following route config:

context.MapRoute(
     "adpan_clinics",
     "adpan/DoctorClinics/{doctorObj}/{controller}/{action}/{clinicObj}",
     new { action = "Index", Controller = "Clinics", clinicObj = UrlParameter.Optional }
     );

context.MapRoute(
    "adpan_default",
    "adpan/{controller}/{action}/{obj}",
    new { action = "Index", Controller = "Dashboard", obj = UrlParameter.Optional }
    );

I use T4MVC for routing. Everything works fine until I want to route back from adpan_clinics to adpan_default using action link.

Scenario) I have following urls:

1st url) http://localhost/adpan/Doctors/Index

2nd url) http://localhost/adpan/DoctorClinics/doctor1/Clinics/index

I can redirect to 2nd url with an action link on 1st url's view like this:

 @Html.ActionLink("Manage Clinics", MVC.adpan.Clinics.Index().AddRouteValues(new { doctorObj = item.Url }))

But, when redirecting back to 1st url using following action link, I face url appending problem:

 @Html.ActionLink("Back to Doctors", MVC.adpan.Doctors.Index())

This action link gives me the following bad url instead of 1st url(Although the page loads correctly!):

bad url) http://localhost/adpan/DoctorClinics/doctor1/Doctors

NOTE: I've also tried this without T4MVC and specifying null values in action link parameters as follow, but still getting the bad url:

@Html.ActionLink("Back to Doctors", "Index", "Doctors", null, null)

I'm just working in adpan area with 2 routes.

I would appreciate any solution and if possible, the reason for getting the correct view from that bad url.

Answer 1

Based on @NightOwl888 answer and difference between RouteLink and ActionLink, I found the solution for both hard-coded approach and T4MVC approach.

1) Hard-Coded approach: route name must be specified:

//signiture: RouteLink(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string linkText, string routeName, object routeValues);
@Html.RouteLink("Back to Doctors","adpan_default", new { controller = "Doctors", action = "Index"})

resulting url: http://localhost/adpan/Doctors

2) T4MVC approach: route name must be specified:

//signiture: RouteLink(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string linkText, string routeName, ActionResult result, IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes)
@Html.RouteLink("Back to Doctors","adpan_default", MVC.adpan.Doctors.Index().AddRouteValues(new {Area=""}), null)

resulting url: http://localhost/adpan/Doctors

Why AddRouteValues(new {Area=""}) ?

Due to the discussion here, it seems like a bug in T4MVC. Below route link adds ?Area=adpan as a futile parameter to the url:

@Html.RouteLink("Back to Doctors", "adpan_default", MVC.adpan.Doctors.Index(), null)

resulting url: http://localhost/adpan/Doctors?Area=adpan

However, this can be a trick to cheat over unwanted url parameters in T4MVC.