ASP.NET MVC Routing with Default Controller

Answer 1

Why does the first URL in the new list still have "Customer". I assume that's a typo and you meant:

• http://example.com/List
• http://example.com/List/Page/2
• http://example.com/List
• http://example.com/View/8372
• http://example.com/Search/foo/Page/5

The following routes work for me:

routes.MapRoute(
    "CustomerSearch"
    , "Search/{query}/Page/{page}"
    , new { controller = "Customer", action = "Search" }
);

routes.MapRoute(
    "CustomerGeneric"
    , "{action}/{id}/Page/{page}"
    , new { controller = "Customer" }
);

//-- Default Route
routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",
    "{action}/{id}",
    new { controller = "Customer", action = "Index", id = "" }
);

How are you generating your links. Since the Controller is no longer in the URL of your route (aka, you don't have "{controller}" in the route URL), but it's a default value, you need to make sure to specify the controller when generating routes.

Thus instead of

Html.ActionLink("LinkText", "ActionName")

do

Html.ActionLink("LinkText", "ActionName", "Customer")

Why? Suppose you had the following routes.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",
    "foo/{action}",
    new { controller = "Cool" }
);

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",
    "bar/{action}",
    new { controller = "Neat" }
);

Which route did you mean when you call this?

<%= Html.ActionLink("LinkText", "ActionName") %>

You can differentiate by specifying the controller and we'll pick the one that has a default value that matches the specified one.

Answer 2

don't mix a rule like: "{action}/{id}" with one that's "{controller}/{action}/{id}" ... specially when id in the later has a default value i.e. is optional.

In that case you have nothing that allows routing to know which one is the right one to use.

A workaround, if that's what you need, would be to add a constrain (see this) to the action in the earlier to a set of values i.e. List, View. Of course that with these types of rules, you can't have a controller with the same name of an action.

Also remember that if you specify a default action & id in the "{action}/{id}" rule, that will be used when you hit the route of your site.