ASP.NET MVC routing and paths is js files

Question

we're facing a problem now. We have a pretty big page with a loooong inline script, which does all the work. We now want to obfuscate it and use it as a separate .js file. But the problem is that we have paths which are generated by Url helper (Url.Content()). So what is the best way to separate js file from the page and not using hard-coded path strings?

Answer 1

I usually write my javascript in separate views (with only js code) and use my own action result to render it. This way I can take advantage of c# on the server side and I can use a model if needed and it will be included as a external js file in the browser (with appropriate caching). The action result I use can be found here: http://codepaste.net/p2s3po

Update

You can use the action result like this from your action:

public ActionResult JsFile() {
    ViewData.Model = //Create model if you want one;
        return new JavascriptFileResult(true)
                   {
                       TempData = TempData,
                       ViewData = ViewData
                   };
}

Then you just treat it as if it was a normal view (but only write javascript in the view). You can take any number of parameters as well of course.

You can include it like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="<%=Url.Action("JsFile", "ControllerName")%>"></script>

Answer 2

You could create javascript functions to set the required paths and invoke them from a small script section from the page.

Javascript file:

var resource1;
var resource2;

function setResourcesReferences(resource1, resource2, ...) {

}

ASPX file:

<script type="text/javascript">
   setResourcesReferences(<% Url.Content("Resource1") %>, <% Url.Content("Resource2") %>, ...);
</script>