ASP.NET MVC ImageFor HtmlHelper

I have created the ImageFor HtmlHelper for use if the image url is stored in a database, web.config etc.

Helper:

using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Web.Routing;

namespace System.Web.Mvc
{
public static class HtmlHelpers
{
public static MvcHtmlString ImageFor<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
var imgUrl = expression.Compile()(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model);
return BuildImageTag(imgUrl.ToString(), null);
}
public static MvcHtmlString ImageFor<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
object htmlAttributes)
{
var imgUrl = expression.Compile()(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model);
return BuildImageTag(imgUrl.ToString(), htmlAttributes);
}

private static MvcHtmlString BuildImageTag(string imgUrl, object htmlAttributes)
{
TagBuilder tag = new TagBuilder("img");

tag.Attributes.Add("src", imgUrl);
if (htmlAttributes != null)
tag.MergeAttributes(new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes));

return MvcHtmlString.Create(tag.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
}
}
}

Usage:

In this example, the image url is stored in the web.config in appSettings.

<appSettings>
<add key="ImageUrl" value="/Content/CSSiteLogo.gif"/>
</appSettings>

Create a property in the model for the image url.

public class IndexModel
{
public string ImageUrl { get; set; }
}

Fetch the image url from the web.config and pass the model to the View in the Action method.

public ActionResult Index()
{
ViewBag.Message = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC!";
IndexModel model = new IndexModel { ImageUrl = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ImageUrl"] };
return View("Index", model);
}

In the View, use the ImageFor helper.

@Html.ImageFor(model => model.ImageUrl, new { width="216px", height="70px", alt="some alt text" })
OR
@Html.ImageFor(model => model.ImageUrl)

Result: