How to handle empty URL in ASP.NET MVC

Question

How do you set up the routing to handle http://mysite.com/Foo?

Where foo can be any value. I want it to go to /Home/Action/Id where foo is the id.

These are the mappings I have tried:

        routes.MapRoute("Catchall", "{*catchall}", 
           new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id=""});

        routes.MapRoute("ByKey", "{id}", 
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index" id=""});

They both generated a 404.

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Your second route is correct. It should work. Maybe you have another routes above? Debug your routes with Phil Haack's ASP.NET Routing Debugger

Answer 2

Try this (note you had a missing comma in your original post):

routes.MapRoute("ByKey", "{id}",
     new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id=""});

I would, however, make it a bit more explanatory to prevent clashes later, even if it means a bit longer URIs:

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

And place this as the first MapRoute command. Order does matter there, and the first route you add is the first route for a URL to be tested with.