How to add active class to Html ActionLink in ASP NET MVC

Question

I m trying to add an active  class to my bootstrap navbar in MVC  but the following doesn t show the active class when written like this    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt     lt li gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   null  new   class  active    lt  li gt     lt li gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt     lt li gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt    This resolves to what looks like a correctly formatted class  but doesn t work    lt a class  active  href     gt Home lt  a gt    In the Bootstrap documentation it states that  a  tags shouldn t be used in the navbar  but the above is how I believe is the correct way of adding a class to an Html ActionLink  Is there another  tidy  way I can do this

User · Answer

I also was looking for a solution and jQuery helped pretty much. First, you need to give 'id's to your <li> elements.

<li id="listguides"><a href='/Guides/List'>List Guides</a></li>

After doing this in your layout page, you can tell jQuery which <li> element should be 'selected' in your view.

@section Scripts{
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $('#listguides').addClass('selected');
    </script>
}

Note: You need to have @RenderSection("scripts", required: false) in your layout page, just before the </body> tag to add that section.

User · Answer

Most of the solutions on this question all require you to specify the  page  on both the li and the a  via HtmlHelper  tag   Both  Wolles and  Crush s answers eliminated this duplication  which was nice  but they were using HtmlHelper extension methods instead of TagHelpers   And I wanted to use a TagHelper and support Razor Pages  You can read my full post here  and get the source code   but the gist of it is   lt bs-menu-link asp-page  quot  Events Index quot  menu-text  quot Events quot  gt  lt  bs-menu-link gt  Would render  if the link was active obviously    lt li class  quot active quot  gt  lt a href  quot  Events quot  gt Events lt  a gt  lt  li gt  My TagHelper leverages the AnchorTagHelper internally  thus supporting asp-page  asp-controller  asp-action  etc  attributes    The  checks  for active or not is similar to many of the answers to this post

User · Answer

Add   ToString  to improve comparing on ASP NET MVC   lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt   lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       Index     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt   lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       About     active         gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt   lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       Contact     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt      --

User · Answer

I did this   Made a helper in menu partial view    helper RouterLink string action  string controller        var IsActive   ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString      controller  amp  amp  ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString      action       lt text gt href   Url Action action  controller   lt  text gt if  IsActive    lt text gt class  active  lt  text gt       Then used it in the anchor tag like this    lt li gt  lt a  RouterLink  Index   Home   gt Home lt  a gt  lt  li gt    My application had no areas but it can also be included as another variable in the helper function  And I had to pass the active class to the anchor tag in my view  But li can also be configured like this

User · Answer

ASP NET Core  amp  Bootstrap 4  Most up-to-date answer  I have re-worked  crush s neat solution for an updated  ASP NET Core and Bootstrap 4 compatible way to solve this problem based on an IHtmlHelper extension method   public static class LinkExtensions       public static IHtmlContent ActiveActionLink this IHtmlHelper html  string linkText  string actionName  string controllerName  object routeValues  object htmlAttributes                return ActiveActionLink html  linkText  actionName  controllerName  new RouteValueDictionary routeValues   HtmlHelper AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes htmlAttributes               public static IHtmlContent ActiveActionLink this IHtmlHelper html  string linkText  string actionName  string controllerName  RouteValueDictionary routeValues  IDictionary lt string  object gt  htmlAttributes                var routeData   html ViewContext RouteData          var routeAction    string routeData Values  action            var routeController    string routeData Values  controller             var active   controllerName Equals routeController   amp  amp  actionName Equals routeAction            using  var writer   new StringWriter                          writer WriteLine    lt li class  nav-item   active    active          gt                 html ActionLink linkText  actionName  controllerName  routeValues  htmlAttributes  WriteTo writer  HtmlEncoder Default               writer WriteLine   lt  li gt                 return new HtmlString writer ToString                         Usage   lt nav class  navbar  gt       lt div class  collapse navbar-collapse  gt           lt ul class  navbar-nav  gt               Html ActiveActionLink  Home    Index    Home   null  new    class    nav-link                  Html ActiveActionLink  About    About    Home   null  new    class    nav-link                  Html ActiveActionLink  Contact    Contact    TimeTracking   null  new    class    nav-link              lt  ul gt       lt  div gt   lt  nav gt

User · Answer

In Bootstrap the active class needs to be applied to the  lt li gt  element and not the  lt a gt   See the first example here  http   getbootstrap com components  navbar  The way you handle your UI style based on what is active or not has nothing to do with ASP NET MVC s ActionLink helper  This is the proper solution to follow how the Bootstrap framework was built    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt       lt li class  active  gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt       lt li gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt       lt li gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt      Edit   Since you will most likely be reusing your menu on multiple pages  it would be smart to have a way to apply that selected class automatically based on the current page rather than copy the menu multiple times and do it manually    The easiest way is to simply use the values contained in ViewContext RouteData  namely the Action and Controller values  We could build on what you currently have with something like this    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt       lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       Index     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt       lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       About     active         gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt       lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       Contact     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt    It s not pretty in code  but it ll get the job done and allow you to extract your menu into a partial view if you like  There are ways to do this in a much cleaner way  but since you re just getting started I ll leave it at that  Best of luck learning ASP NET MVC     Late edit   This question seems to be getting a bit of traffic so I figured I d throw in a more elegant solution using an HtmlHelper extension   Edit 03-24-2015  Had to rewrite this method to allow for multiple actions and controllers triggering the selected behavior  as well as handling for when the method is called from a child action partial view  thought I d share the update   public static string IsSelected this HtmlHelper html  string controllers       string actions       string cssClass    selected         ViewContext viewContext   html ViewContext      bool isChildAction   viewContext Controller ControllerContext IsChildAction       if  isChildAction          viewContext   html ViewContext ParentActionViewContext       RouteValueDictionary routeValues   viewContext RouteData Values      string currentAction   routeValues  action   ToString        string currentController   routeValues  controller   ToString         if  String IsNullOrEmpty actions           actions   currentAction       if  String IsNullOrEmpty controllers           controllers   currentController       string   acceptedActions   actions Trim   Split      Distinct   ToArray        string   acceptedControllers   controllers Trim   Split      Distinct   ToArray         return acceptedActions Contains currentAction   amp  amp  acceptedControllers Contains currentController            cssClass   String Empty      Works with  NET Core   public static string IsSelected this IHtmlHelper htmlHelper  string controllers  string actions  string cssClass    selected         string currentAction   htmlHelper ViewContext RouteData Values  action   as string      string currentController   htmlHelper ViewContext RouteData Values  controller   as string       IEnumerable lt string gt  acceptedActions    actions    currentAction  Split           IEnumerable lt string gt  acceptedControllers    controllers    currentController  Split            return acceptedActions Contains currentAction   amp  amp  acceptedControllers Contains currentController            cssClass   String Empty      Sample usage    lt ul gt       lt li class   Html IsSelected actions   Home   controllers   Default    gt           lt a href   Url Action  Home    Default    gt Home lt  a gt       lt  li gt       lt li class   Html IsSelected actions   List Detail   controllers   Default    gt           lt a href   Url Action  List    Default    gt List lt  a gt       lt  li gt   lt  ul gt

User · Answer

Extension   public static MvcHtmlString LiActionLink this HtmlHelper html  string text  string action  string controller        var context   html ViewContext      if  context Controller ControllerContext IsChildAction          context   html ViewContext ParentActionViewContext      var routeValues   context RouteData Values      var currentAction   routeValues  action   ToString        var currentController   routeValues  controller   ToString         var str   String Format   lt li role   presentation   0  gt  1  lt  li gt            currentAction Equals action  StringComparison InvariantCulture   amp  amp          currentController Equals controller  StringComparison InvariantCulture              class   active              String Empty  html ActionLink text  action  controller  ToHtmlString              return new MvcHtmlString str       Usage    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt       Html LiActionLink  About    About    Home        Html LiActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home    lt  ul gt

User · Answer

I believe here is a cleaner and smalller code to do get the selected menu being  active      lt ul class  navbar-nav mr-auto  gt                   lt li class  nav-item  Html IfSelected  Index    gt                       lt a class  nav-link  href   Url Action  Index    Home    gt Home lt  a gt                   lt  li gt                   lt li class  nav-item  Html IfSelected  Controls    gt                       lt a class  nav-link  href   Url Action  Controls    Home    gt MVC Controls lt  a gt                   lt  li gt                   lt li class  nav-item  Html IfSelected  About    gt                       lt a class  nav-link  href   Url Action  About    Home    gt About lt  a gt                   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt       public static string IfSelected this HtmlHelper html  string action                        return html                         ViewContext                         RouteData                         Values  action                           ToString      action                                 active

User · Answer

We also can create UrlHelper from RequestContext which we can get from MvcHandler itself  Therefore I beleive for someone who wants to keep this logic in Razor templates following way would be helpful    In project root create a folder named AppCode   Create a file there named HtmlHelpers cshtml Create a helper in there    helper MenuItem string action  string controller         var mvcHandler   Context CurrentHandler as MvcHandler       if  mvcHandler    null                  var url   new UrlHelper mvcHandler RequestContext            var routeData   mvcHandler RequestContext RouteData           var currentAction   routeData Values  action   ToString             var currentController   routeData Values  controller   ToString             var isCurrent   string Equals currentAction  action  StringComparison InvariantCultureIgnoreCase   amp  amp                           string Equals currentController  controller  StringComparison InvariantCultureIgnoreCase             lt div class    isCurrent    active         gt               lt div gt  url Action action  controller  lt  div gt           lt  div gt               Then we can use on our views like this    HtmlHelpers MenuItem  Default    Home      Hope that it helps to someone

User · Answer

I manged to do this by adding a view bag parameter in asp net mvc  Here what have i done  Added ViewBag Current    Scheduler   like parameter in each page  In layout page   lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt        lt li class    ViewBag Current     Scheduler     active          gt  lt a href   Url Action  Index   Scheduler    target   self  gt Scheduler lt  a gt  lt  li gt    lt  ul gt    This solved my problem

User · Answer

May be little late  But hope this helps   public static class Utilities       public static string IsActive this HtmlHelper html                                     string control                                    string action                var routeData   html ViewContext RouteData           var routeAction    string routeData Values  action            var routeControl    string routeData Values  controller                both must match         var returnActive   control    routeControl  amp  amp                             action    routeAction           return returnActive    active                  And usage as follow    lt div class  navbar-collapse collapse  gt       lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt           lt li class   Html IsActive  Home    Index    gt               Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home            lt  li gt           lt li class   Html IsActive  Home    About    gt               Html ActionLink  About    About    Home            lt  li gt           lt li class   Html IsActive  Home    Contact    gt               Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home            lt  li gt       lt  ul gt   lt  div gt    Got reference from http   www codingeverything com 2014 05 mvcbootstrapactivenavbar html

User · Answer

I created an HtmlHelper extension that adds an ActiveActionLink method for those of you who want to add the  active  class to the link itself rather than the  lt li gt  surrounding the link    public static class LinkExtensions       public static MvcHtmlString ActiveActionLink this HtmlHelper html  string linkText  string actionName  string controllerName  object routeValues  object htmlAttributes                return ActiveActionLink html  linkText  actionName  controllerName  new RouteValueDictionary routeValues   HtmlHelper AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes htmlAttributes               public static MvcHtmlString ActiveActionLink this HtmlHelper html  string linkText  string actionName  string controllerName  RouteValueDictionary routeValues  IDictionary lt string  object gt  htmlAttributes                const string activeClassName    active            var routeData   html ViewContext RouteData           var routeAction    string routeData Values  action            var routeController    string routeData Values  controller             var active   controllerName Equals routeController   amp  amp  actionName Equals routeAction            if  active                        var  class    string htmlAttributes  class                 htmlAttributes  class     string IsNullOrEmpty  class                    activeClassName                    class     active                      var link   html ActionLink linkText  actionName  controllerName  routeValues  htmlAttributes            return link             Usage is as follows    Html ActiveActionLink  Home    Index    Home   new   area         new    class    nav-item nav-link

User · Answer

I modified dom s  not pretty  answer and made it uglier  Sometimes two controllers have the conflicting action names  i e  Index  so I do this    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt     lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString     ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       HomeIndex     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt     lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString     ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       AboutIndex     active         gt  Html ActionLink  About    Index    About   lt  li gt     lt li class    ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString     ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       ContactHome     active         gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt

User · Answer

Easy ASP NET Core 3 0 and TagHelpers   HtmlTargetElement  li   Attributes    active-when    public class LiTagHelper   TagHelper       public string ActiveWhen   get  set          ViewContext       HtmlAttributeNotBound      public ViewContext ViewContextData   get  set         public override void Process TagHelperContext context  TagHelperOutput output                if  ActiveWhen    null              return           var targetController   ActiveWhen Split      1           var targetAction   ActiveWhen Split      2            var currentController   ViewContextData RouteData Values  controller   ToString            var currentAction   ViewContextData RouteData Values  action   ToString             if  currentController Equals targetController   amp  amp  currentAction Equals targetAction                         if  output Attributes ContainsName  class                                  output Attributes SetAttribute  class      output Attributes  class   Value  active                              else                               output Attributes SetAttribute  class    active                                      Include into your  ViewImports cs    addTagHelper    YourAssemblyName   Usage     lt li active-when   Home Index  gt

User · Answer

I would like to propose this solution which is based on the first part of Dom s answer   We first define two variables   action  and  controller  and use them to determine the active link     string controller   ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString    string action   ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString       And then    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt       lt li class     controller     Home   amp  amp  action     Index      active         gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt       lt li class     controller     Home   amp  amp  action     About      active         gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt       lt li class     controller     Home   amp  amp  action     Contact      active         gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt    Now it looks nicer and no need for more complex solutions

User · Answer

I know this question is old  but I will just like to add my voice here  I believe it is a good idea to leave the knowledge of whether or not a link is active to the controller of the view    I would just set a unique value for each view in the controller action  For instance  if I wanted to make the home page link active  I would do something like this   public ActionResult Index                     ViewBag Title    Home       ViewBag Home    class   active       return View        Then in my view  I will write something like this    lt li  ViewBag Home gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   null  new   title    Go home     lt  li gt    When you navigate to a different page  say Programs  ViewBag Home does not exist  instead ViewBag Programs does   therefore  nothing is rendered  not even class     I think this is cleaner both for maintainability and cleanliness  I tend to always want to leave logic out of the view as much as I can

User · Answer

You can try this   In my case i am loading menu from database based on role based access  Write the code on your every view which menu your want to active based on your view     lt script type  text javascript  gt            document  ready function                              li active active-menu   removeClass  active active-menu                   a href   MgtCustomer Index     closest  li   addClass  active active-menu                 lt  script gt

User · Answer

the answer by  dombenoit works  Though it introduces some code to maintain  Check this syntax out   using  var nav   Html Bootstrap   Begin new Nav   Style NavType NavBar  SetLinksActiveByControllerAndAction            nav ActionLink  Link 1    action1        nav ActionLink  Link 2    action2        nav Link  External Link            Notice the use of  SetLinksActiveByControllerAndAction   method   If you wonder what makes this syntax possible  check out TwitterBootstrapMVC

User · Answer

I realized that this problem was a common problem for some of us  so I published my own solution using nuget package  Below you can see how it works  I hope that will be useful   Note This nuget package is my first package  So if you see a mistake  please give feedback  Thank you    Install Package or download source code and add your Project  -Install-Package Betalgo MvcMenuNavigator  Add your pages to an enum  public enum HeaderTop       Dashboard      Product   public enum HeaderSub       Index    Put Filter to top of your Controllor or Action   MenuNavigator HeaderTop Product  HeaderSub Index   public class ProductsController   Controller       public async Task lt ActionResult gt  Index                 return View                MenuNavigator HeaderTop Dashboard  HeaderSub Index       public async Task lt ActionResult gt  Dashboard                 return View             And use it In your header layout like this      var headerTop    HeaderTop  MenuNavigatorPageDataNavigatorPageData HeaderTop  var headerSub    HeaderSub  MenuNavigatorPageDataNavigatorPageData HeaderSub     lt div class  nav-collapse collapse navbar-collapse navbar-responsive-collapse  gt   lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt       lt li class    headerTop  HeaderTop Dashboard  active selected open       gt           lt a href   Url Action  Index   Home    gt Dashboard lt  a gt       lt  li gt       lt li class    headerTop  HeaderTop Product  active selected open       gt           lt a href   Url Action  Index    Products    gt Products lt  a gt       lt  li gt   lt  ul gt       More Info  https   github com betalgo MvcMenuNavigator

User · Answer

My Solution to this problem is    lt li class    Context Request Path Value ToLower   Contains  about      active          nav-item  gt                   lt a class  nav-link  asp-area    asp-controller  Home  asp-action  About  gt About lt  a gt               lt  li gt    A better way may be adding an Html extension method to return the current path to be compared with link

User · Answer

if is it is not showing at all  the reason is that you need two   sign     class   BUT  I believe you might need to have the active class on the  li  tag not on the  a  tag  according too bootstrap docs  http   getbootstrap com components  navbar-default     lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt     lt li class  active  gt  lt a href     gt Home lt  a gt  lt  li gt     lt li gt  lt a href     gt Profile lt  a gt  lt  li gt     lt li gt  lt a href     gt Messages lt  a gt  lt  li gt   lt  ul gt    therefore your code will be    lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt     lt li class  active  gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   null  lt  li gt     lt li gt  Html ActionLink  About    About    Home   lt  li gt     lt li gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt   lt  ul gt

User · Answer

is possible with a lambda function     string controllerAction   ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString     ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString        Func lt string  string gt  IsSelected  x   gt  x  controllerAction    active            then usage    Html ActionLink  Inicio    Index    Home   new   area         new    class   IsSelected  HomeIndex

User · Answer

Considering what Damith posted  I like to think you can just qualify active by the Viewbag Title  best practice is to populate this in your content pages allowing your  Layout cshtml page to hold your link bars    Also note that if you are using sub-menu items it also works fine    lt li class  has-sub   ViewBag Title     Dashboard 1     ViewBag Title     Dashboard 2     active          gt       lt a href  javascript    gt           lt b class  caret  gt  lt  b gt           lt i class  fa fa-th-large  gt  lt  i gt           lt span gt Dashboard lt  span gt       lt  a gt       lt ul class  sub-menu  gt           lt li class    ViewBag Title     Dashboard 1     active         gt  lt a href  index html  gt Dashboard v1 lt  a gt  lt  li gt           lt li class    ViewBag Title     Dashboard 2     active         gt  lt a href  index v2 html  gt Dashboard v2 lt  a gt  lt  li gt       lt  ul gt   lt  li gt

User · Answer

This solution is simple for Asp net MCV 5    Create a static class  for example Utilitarios cs  Inside the Class create a static method   public static string IsLinkActive this UrlHelper url  string action  string controller        if  url RequestContext RouteData Values  controller   ToString      controller  amp  amp          url RequestContext RouteData Values  action   ToString      action                return  active              return        call like this   lt ul class  sidebar-menu  data-widget  tree  gt       lt li class  header  gt HEADER lt  li gt       lt li class   Url IsLinkActive  Index    Home    gt           lt a href   Url Action  Index    Home    gt  lt i class  fa fa-link  gt  lt  i gt   lt span gt Home lt  span gt  lt  a gt       lt  li gt       lt li class   Url IsLinkActive  About    Home    gt           lt a href   Url Action  About    Home    gt  lt i class  fa fa-link  gt  lt  i gt  lt span gt About lt  span gt  lt  a gt       lt  li gt   lt  ul gt

User · Answer

I have make combination of answers above and made my solution    So     First in razor block create one string variable which will contain name value of controller and action that is called by user                   string controllerAction    ViewContext RouteData Values  Controller   ToString     ViewContext RouteData Values  Action   ToString             Then use combination of HTML and Razor code         lt ul class  nav navbar-nav  gt           lt li class    controllerAction     HomeIndex     active          gt  Html ActionLink  Home    Index    Home   lt  li gt           lt li class    controllerAction     AboutIndex     active          gt  Html ActionLink  About    Index    About   lt  li gt           lt li class    controllerAction     HomeContact     active          gt  Html ActionLink  Contact    Contact    Home   lt  li gt       lt  ul gt    I think  that this is good because you don t need to access  ViewContext RouteData Values  each time to get controller name and action name

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