I put "multi project areas" in Google and came accross this post: http://forums.asp.net/p/1494640/3540105.aspx. Note specifically Phil Haack's response.
It appears that defining your views in the parent project is "functioning as designed" because of this entry in the MSDN post: Now that all the code is in place, the final step is to customize the build process for each area project. This customization causes some child-area files, such as the views, to be copied to the main project before the application is built.
The "problem" with the post is that it was defined for the beta where this build step was easily accessable. RC+ you have to point to the Futures assembly and assign the build step slightly differently if this is the path you choose.
If you don't like the direction this pushes you, the portable areas portion of MvcContrib Phil mentions is about as good as you're gonna get to an alternative.
1 - Seperate you Mvc Areas into differrent Mvc Projects to be compiled into their own seperate assemblies
2 - Add this to your AssemblyInfo.cs class, to call a method when the application is loaded
[assembly: PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(PluginAreaBootstrapper), "Init")]
3 - Here's what the Init method looks like when it's invoked during the load
public class PluginAreaBootstrapper
{
public static readonly List<Assembly> PluginAssemblies = new List<Assembly>();
public static List<string> PluginNames()
{
return PluginAssemblies.Select(
pluginAssembly => pluginAssembly.GetName().Name)
.ToList();
}
public static void Init()
{
var fullPluginPath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "Areas");
foreach (var file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(fullPluginPath, "*Plugin*.dll"))
PluginAssemblies.Add(Assembly.LoadFile(file));
PluginAssemblies.ForEach(BuildManager.AddReferencedAssembly);
}
}
4 - Add a custom RazorViewEngine
public class PluginRazorViewEngine : RazorViewEngine
{
public PluginRazorViewEngine()
{
AreaMasterLocationFormats = new[]
{
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml"
};
AreaPartialViewLocationFormats = new[]
{
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml"
};
var areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats = new List<string>
{
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml"
};
var partialViewLocationFormats = new List<string>
{
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml"
};
var masterLocationFormats = new List<string>
{
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml"
};
foreach (var plugin in PluginAreaBootstrapper.PluginNames())
{
masterLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
masterLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");
masterLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/Shared/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
masterLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/Shared/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");
partialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
partialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");
partialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml");
partialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml");
areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.Add(
"~/Areas/" + plugin + "/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.vbhtml");
}
ViewLocationFormats = partialViewLocationFormats.ToArray();
MasterLocationFormats = masterLocationFormats.ToArray();
PartialViewLocationFormats = partialViewLocationFormats.ToArray();
AreaPartialViewLocationFormats = areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.ToArray();
AreaViewLocationFormats = areaViewAndPartialViewLocationFormats.ToArray();
}
}
5 - Register your Areas from your different Mvc (Area) Projects
namespace MvcApplication8.Web.MyPlugin1
{
public class MyPlugin1AreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
public override string AreaName
{
get { return "MyPlugin1"; }
}
public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
{
context.MapRoute(
"MyPlugin1_default",
"MyPlugin1/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new {action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional}
);
}
}
}
Sourcecode and additional references can can be found here: http://blog.longle.io/2012/03/29/building-a-composite-mvc3-application-with-pluggable-areas/
Best Answer
You could use the RazorGenerator package to embed your Razor views into a separate assembly. Here are the steps to make this work:
Razor Generator
Visual Studio extension (Tools -> Extensions and Updates...)AreasLibrary
(you could also use an ASP.NET MVC project template in order to get Intellisense in Razor views)RazorGenerator.Mvc
NuGet to theAreasLibrary
project.Add a controller inside the
AreasLibrary
project (~/Areas/Admin/Controllers/HomeController.cs
):Add a corresponding view (
~/Areas/Admin/Views/Home/Index.cshtml
):In the properties of the view set the
Custom Tool
toRazorGenerator
.Inside the class library add an
~/Areas/AdminAreaRegistration.cs
:All that's left is to reference the class library in the main MVC application.
Reference: http://blog.davidebbo.com/2011/06/precompile-your-mvc-views-using.html