Creating helpers using extension methods

If we want our helpers to behave in a manner similar to the built-in ASP.NET MVC HTML Helpers, we need to create an extension method. Extension methods are a technique used to add new methods to an existing class.

Note

Extension methods are a very powerful and intuitive approach to add additional functionality to existing classes and can help you in many ways. You can read more about extension methods on MSDN at http://bit.ly/ExtMethods.

We'll create an extension method to the HtmlHelper class that is represented by a view's HTML property by completing the following steps:

1. Start by adding a new class file called ButtonExtensions.cs to the Helpers folder in the root of your project.

2. Change the class type to static. Extension methods need to be declared inside a static class.

3. Add a new method called BootstrapButton to the class. The first parameter of the method indicates which class the extension extends and must be preceded with the this keyword.

4. The remaining...