title: MVC ActionLink generating different types of links... why?
body: <p>I'm new to MVC land, and have an app that i'm working on. i have 2 different links with 2 routes in my global which are fairly similiar</p>
  
  <p>route 1 </p>
  
  <pre><code>routes.MapRoute("Category", "Movies/{category}/{subcategory}", 
      new { controller = "Catalog", action = "Index", category = "", subcategory = "" });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>route 2</p>
  
  <pre><code>routes.MapRoute("Movie", "Movie/{movie}", 
      new { controller = "Movie", action = "Index", movie = "" });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When i call an actionlink for the first route it creates it as i would think it should:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><code>.../Movies/Category/SubCategory</code></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>however when i create my second link it populates it like this:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><code>.../Movie?movieId=ff569575-08ec-4049-93e2-901e7b0cb96a</code></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I was using a string instead of a guid before and it was still doing the same i.e.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><code>.../Movie?movieName=Snatch</code></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>my actionlinks are set up as follows</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= Html.ActionLink(parent.Name, "Index", "Catalog",
      new { category = parent.Name, subCategory = "" }, null)%&gt;
  
  &lt;%= Html.ActionLink(movie.Name, "Index", "Movie", 
      new { movieId = movie.MovieId }, null)%&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My app still works, but i thought this behavior was strange. any help would be great.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>