Is there a way to have @url.Action on an <img> tag

Question

I have a tag and I'm using Razor syntax. Im using the @url.Action html helper to pass a parameter to a method on a controller to retrieve the picture. But I want to have this picture as a link so when the user click the picture it would go to the controller and open a different view. So I tried the both ways show below but it's telling me that it's missing a "}" for "Tryone". And for "Trytwo" its not giving me any errors but it does not show me the picture as a link. Any ideas of the wright way to do this?

tryone

@foreach (var p in Model)
{   
     <a href= "@Url.Action("Index","Home")>           
    <img width="50" height="50"
          src= "@Url.Action("GetImage", "Sells", new {p.ItemID })" />
     </a>                                        
}

trytwo

@foreach (var p in Model)
{                    
    <img href="@Url.Action("Index","Home")" width="50" height="50"
          src= "@Url.Action("GetImage", "Sells", new {p.ItemID })" />                                                 
}

Answer 1

An issue with your first attempt is that the href attribute is missing a closing quotation mark before the ending angle brace.

@foreach (var p in Model)
{   
     <a href= "@Url.Action("Index","Home")">           
    <img width="50" height="50"
          src= "@Url.Action("GetImage", "Sells", new {p.ItemID })" />
     </a>                                        
}

Answer 2

trytwo is not working because img does not support href attribute.

Use your first approach with correct syntax - add quote (") at the end of href value.

Answer 3

I would recommend that you extend HtmlHelper .

Something like this:

public static class HtmlHelperExtensions
{

    public static MvcHtmlString ActionImageLink(this HtmlHelper helper, string controller, string action, object parameters, object linkHtmlAttributes, string src, object imageHtmlAttributes)
    {
        var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(helper.ViewContext.RequestContext);
        var url = String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(controller) ? action : urlHelper.Action(action, controller, parameters);

        var imgTagBuilder = new TagBuilder("img");
        var imgUrl = urlHelper.Content(src);

        imgTagBuilder.MergeAttribute("src", imgUrl);

        if (imageHtmlAttributes != null)
        {
            var props = imageHtmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperties();
            props.ToList().ForEach(prop => { imgTagBuilder.MergeAttribute(
                prop.Name,
                imageHtmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperty(prop.Name).GetValue(imageHtmlAttributes, null) as String);
            });
        }

        var image = imgTagBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing);

        var aTagBuilder = new TagBuilder("a");

        aTagBuilder.MergeAttribute("href", url);

        if (linkHtmlAttributes != null)
        {
            var props = linkHtmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperties();
            props.ToList().ForEach(prop =>
            {
                aTagBuilder.MergeAttribute(
                    prop.Name,
                    linkHtmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperty(prop.Name).GetValue(linkHtmlAttributes, null) as String);
            });
        }

        aTagBuilder.InnerHtml = image;

        return MvcHtmlString.Create(aTagBuilder.ToString());
    }}

Then you can use it in your cshtml page:

@Html.ActionImageLink("Controller", "action/url", null, null, Url.Content("image/location"), null)

remember to create a reference to your extension class.

References:

Extending HtmlHelpers: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/720515/Custom-HTML-Helper-for-MVC-Application

Extension Methods: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383977.aspx