Adding ID and title to URL slugs in ASP.NET MVC

While I don't know any specifics of how StackOverflow manage it, here's an overview of how you could do it

• Retrieve the question from the database using the ID
• Convert the stored question title into a URL compatible slug
• If the converted title slug does not match the slug passed in the URL then redirect using the converted title slug.

This ensures the URL is always the correct one and avoids possible embarrassing fake URLs

Here is an example of how they might do it, but I believe your asking how it can be done and this should work.

First stage is to set-up 2 routes in the Global.asax

routes.MapRoute("WithQuestion", "questions/{id}/{name}", new { controller = "Questions", action = "Question", id = "1" });
routes.MapRoute("WithoutQuestion", "questions/{id}", new { controller = "Questions", action = "WithoutQuestion", id="1"});

Now in our Questions controller,

    public ActionResult Question(int id)
    {
        //Load the question as we have the name appended.
        // We could actually do a little validation here as well
        return View();
    }

    public ActionResult WithoutQuestion(int id)
    {
        //Load the question object
        //Generate the full URL and redirect
        return Redirect(FullURL)
    }

This is a very basic example but shows how you could do it.