Delete ActionLink with confirm dialog

Don't confuse routeValues with htmlAttributes. You probably want this overload:

<%= Html.ActionLink(
    "Delete", 
    "Delete", 
    new { id = item.storyId }, 
    new { onclick = "return confirm('Are you sure you wish to delete this article?');" }) 
%>

<%= Html.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete",
    new { id = item.storyId }, 
    new { onclick = "return confirm('Are you sure you wish to delete this article?');" })     %>

The above code only works for Html.ActionLink.

For

Ajax.ActionLink

use the following code:

<%= Ajax.ActionLink(" ", "deleteMeeting", new { id = Model.eventID, subid = subItem.ID, fordate = forDate, forslot = forslot }, new AjaxOptions
                                            {
                                                Confirm = "Are you sure you wish to delete?",
                                                UpdateTargetId = "Appointments",
                                                HttpMethod = "Get",
                                                InsertionMode = InsertionMode.Replace,
                                                LoadingElementId = "div_loading"
                                            }, new { @class = "DeleteApointmentsforevent" })%>

The 'Confirm' option specifies javascript confirm box.

those are routes you're passing in

<%= Html.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete",
    new { id = item.storyId }, 
    new { onclick = "return confirm('Are you sure you wish to delete this article?');" })     %>

The overloaded method you're looking for is this one:

public static MvcHtmlString ActionLink(
    this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
    string linkText,
    string actionName,
    Object routeValues,
    Object htmlAttributes
)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492124.aspx