ASP.NET MVC - Nesting Routes / Controllers

Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC app. I have seen similar question asked. However, I haven't found a good answer. Essentially, I want to use the following routes:

/admin/users
/admin/users/create
/admin/users/[someId]
/admin/roles
/admin/roles/create
/admin/roles/[someId]

I have the following file structure:

/Controllers
  AdminController.cs
  /Admin
    UsersController.cs
    RolesController.cs
/Views
  /Admin
    Index.cshtml
    /Users
      Index.cshtml
      Detail.cshtml
      Create.cshtml
    /Roles
      Index.cshtml
      Create.cshtml
      Detail.cshtml

When I run my app, I just get The resource cannot be found.

What am I doing wrong? I set breakpoints, but none of them are being hit. It's like the routes aren't mapping to the controllers. I'm not sure what I need to do though.

Your file structure doesn't really matter. Your routes matter, but you haven't included them in your question. — mason
– mason, Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 16:06
By default you can find your RouteConfig.cs in the App_Start Folder. Maybe show add it to your question. — Mr.N0body
– Mr.N0body, Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 16:09

Shyju · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 16:22:18Z

15

You do not need to create sub folders for this to work. Just have 2 controllers(UsersController and RolesController) and you can use attribute routing to define the custom routing pattern you want.

Assuming you have attribute routing enabled

public class UsersController : Controller
{
  [Route("admin/users")]
  public ActionResult Index()  { // to do : Return something }

  [Route("admin/users/create")]
  public ActionResult Create()  { // to do : Return something }

  [Route("admin/users/{id}")]
  public ActionResult View(int id)  { // to do : Return something }    
}

Or you can do the RoutePrefix on the controller level.

[RoutePrefix("admin/users")]
public class UsersController : Controller
{
  [Route("")]
  public ActionResult Index()  { // to do : Return something }

  [Route("create")]
  public ActionResult Create()  { // to do : Return something }

  [Route("{id}")]
  public ActionResult View(int id)  { // to do : Return something }    
}

You can do the samething for the RolesControllers as well.

You can enable attribute routing in the RegisterRoutes method in RouteConfig.cs file.

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{            
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
    routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes(); //This line enables attribute routing 
   //Existing default Route definition goes here
}

You may also consider creating an "Admin" area and put your controllers inside that. Areas are the right solution if you want to logically group similar functionality.

If you do not prefer attribute routing ( why not ?) , you an define these custom route patterns in your RouteConfig. The order in you define the route matters.So make sure you define your specific routes before the default generic one.

edited Mar 31, 2016 at 16:22

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 16:13

Shyju

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2 Comments

user70192 Over a year ago

Is there a way for me to use sub folders? I will have a lot of controllers under the admin route. That's one reason I want to use sub folders.

Shyju Over a year ago

You can use sub folders.As long as your class names ends with Controller, It will be picked up. If you want to logically group funcionality/controllers, consider creating an Admin Area.

Rick R · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 16:18:12Z

1

You can also override your route tables by decorating your action methods with the RouteAttribute class.

For example:

class AdminController
{
    [Route("/admin/users/create")]
    public ViewResult CreateUser()
    {
        ...
    }
}

This has the advantage of separating the method name from the url component.

You can also route multiple URLs to a single method:

class AdminController
{
    [Route("/admin/users/{someId:guid}")]
    [Route("/admin/users/{someId:guid}/details")]
    public ViewResult UserDetails(Guid someID)
    {
        ...
    }
}

As mason said, the file structure isn't important in MVC routing.

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 16:18

Rick R

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Comments

NightOwl888 · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 17:35:35Z

0

If you want to use convention (folder) based routing, you could use MvcCodeRouting to do exactly what you have specified here. It uses namespaces by default, so when you add controllers in a hierarchy, it will generate routes in the same hierarchy automatically. No need to apply the [Route] attribute everywhere and setup your routes manually.

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 17:35

NightOwl888

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