Creates a menu item wrapped in an li tag

menuitem.cs

// Sample call
// @Html.MenuItem("Logs", new { controller = "logs", action = "index" })

    public static class HtmlExtensionMethods
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a new menu item (li)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="helper">class this extension method is attached to</param>
        /// <param name="linkText">Link text to be output in the anchor tag</param>
        /// <param name="routeValues">action/controller are required</param>
        /// <returns>IHtmlString containing the html output</returns>
        public static IHtmlString MenuItem(this HtmlHelper helper, string linkText, object routeValues)
        {
            return MenuItem(helper, linkText, routeValues, null);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a new menu item (li)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="helper">class this extension method is attached to</param>
        /// <param name="linkText">Link text to be output in the anchor tag</param>
        /// <param name="routeValues">action/controller are required</param>
        /// <param name="htmlAttributes">Additional html attributes attached to the resulting list item</param>
        /// <returns>IHtmlString containing the html output</returns>
        public static IHtmlString MenuItem(this HtmlHelper helper, string linkText, object routeValues, object htmlAttributes)
        {
            return MenuItem(helper, linkText, new RouteValueDictionary(routeValues), htmlAttributes);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a new menu item (li)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="helper">class this extension method is attached to</param>
        /// <param name="linkText">Link text to be output in the anchor tag</param>
        /// <param name="routeValues">action/controller are required</param>
        /// <param name="htmlAttributes">Additional html attributes attached to the resulting list item</param>
        /// <returns>IHtmlString containing the html output</returns>
        private static IHtmlString MenuItem(this HtmlHelper helper, string linkText, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, object htmlAttributes)
        {
            var liTag = CreateMenuListItem(helper, linkText, routeValues, htmlAttributes);

            return new HtmlString(liTag.ToString());
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates a new menu item (li)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="helper">class this extension method is attached to</param>
        /// <param name="linkText">Link text to be output in the anchor tag</param>
        /// <param name="routeValues">action/controller are required</param>
        /// <param name="htmlAttributes">Additional html attributes attached to the resulting list item</param>
        /// <returns>A tagbuilder containing the li/anchor tag</returns>
        private static TagBuilder CreateMenuListItem(HtmlHelper helper, string linkText, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, object htmlAttributes)
        {
            TagBuilder liTag = new TagBuilder("li");
            liTag.MergeAttributes(new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes));

            string controller = ((string)routeValues["controller"]).ToLower();
            string selectedMenu = helper.ViewBag.SelectedMenuItem;

            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(selectedMenu) && selectedMenu == controller)
            {
                if (liTag.Attributes.ContainsKey("class"))
                {
                    liTag.Attributes["class"] = (liTag.Attributes["class"] += " selected ").Trim();
                }
                else
                {
                    liTag.Attributes.Add("class", "selected");
                }
            }

            liTag.InnerHtml = helper.ActionLink(linkText, (string)routeValues["action"], controller, null, new { @class = controller }).ToString();
            return liTag;
        }
    }