C# – MVC 3 Area route not working

asp.net-mvcasp.net-mvc-3cc#-4.0

I created a Area in my MVC 3 application called 'Blog'.

In global.asax I have the following code.

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute(
            "Default", // Route name
            "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
        );
    }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

        RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

    }

This is the code of my Area

public class BlogAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
    public override string AreaName
    {
        get { return "Blog"; }
    }

    public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
    {
        context.MapRoute(
            "Blog_default",
            "Blog/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
        );
    }
}

When I go to the following url http://localhost/CMS/blog I get the following error.

The view 'Index' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched:
~/Views/blog/Index.aspx
~/Views/blog/Index.ascx
~/Views/Shared/Index.aspx
~/Views/Shared/Index.ascx
~/Views/blog/Index.cshtml
~/Views/blog/Index.vbhtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.cshtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.vbhtml

How do I solve this?

Best Answer

I found what I consider to be a bug in the framework, with a workaround. If you are trying to map a default route to an MVC 3 app with areas, your global.asax file might have something like this:

VB:

routes.MapRoute(
      "Default",
      "{area}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
      New With {.area = "MyArea", .controller = "Home", .action = "Index", .id = UrlParameter.Optional}
)

C#:

routes.MapRoute(
       "Default",
       "{area}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
       new { area = "MyArea", controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

If you go to your app root in the URL, you may get a runtime error like this:

The view 'Index' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched:

For some reason, the view engine does not appear to look in the area folder for the view file the same as if you type in the whole link. The strange thing is the code reaches the controller action. Here is the fix: Put this code in your controller action:

VB:

If Not Me.ControllerContext.RouteData.DataTokens.ContainsKey("area") Then
                Me.ControllerContext.RouteData.DataTokens.Add("area", "MyArea")
            End If

  if (!this.ControllerContext.RouteData.DataTokens.ContainsKey("area"))
{
        this.ControllerContext.RouteData.DataTokens.Add("area", "MyArea")
 }

Related Solutions

C# – File Upload ASP.NET MVC 3.0

You don't use a file input control. Server side controls are not used in ASP.NET MVC. Checkout the following blog post which illustrates how to achieve this in ASP.NET MVC.

So you would start by creating an HTML form which would contain a file input:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
    <input type="file" name="file" />
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

and then you would have a controller to handle the upload:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // This action renders the form
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    // This action handles the form POST and the upload
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(HttpPostedFileBase file)
    {
        // Verify that the user selected a file
        if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0) 
        {
            // extract only the filename
            var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
            // store the file inside ~/App_Data/uploads folder
            var path = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/uploads"), fileName);
            file.SaveAs(path);
        }
        // redirect back to the index action to show the form once again
        return RedirectToAction("Index");        
    }
}

How to use Routing in MVC for SEO Friendly URL

Since that's not a generic url but a concrete one (pointing to a product), you could use:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute(
            "Products",
            "home/index/{productname}/{id}",
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index" }
        );

        routes.MapRoute(
            "Default",
            "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
        );
    }

So, everything not matching to "Products" route will go to "Default". Note that I didn't add the ".aspx" to the rout since I believe it's a mistake. If you actually want it, just add it to the route:

routes.MapRoute(
            "Products",
            "home/index.aspx/{productname}/{id}",
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index" }
        );

Also, I would suggest to use a better url with:

routes.MapRoute(
            "Products",
            "products/{productname}/{id}",
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index" }
        );

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – File Upload ASP.NET MVC 3.0

How to use Routing in MVC for SEO Friendly URL

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