How to use an area for login in ASP.NET Core 6 MVC

Question

I used the default method to create an area. Right-click on project and add a new scaffolded item. Selected area, gave it a name and it created the folder structure.

My area is called Login. I created a controller (in the Areas/Login/Controllers folder) called AccountController with a method called Login that does nothing but return view();.

In my HomeController I added an [Authorize] attribute and the only action is the default index.

I have my routes setup:

app.UseEndpoints(endpoints => {
    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(name: "login",
              pattern: "{area:exists}/{controller=Account}/{action=Login}/{id?}");
    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(name: "default",
              pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"); 
});

I tested with a break point and I am correctly hitting the AccountController > Login action inside the area, but when it returns the view it does not find the view Areas/Login/Views/Account/Login.cshtml.

It's actually looking in the main site. If I add a Login.cshtml file inside the main site's Views/Shared folder it will load it.

I feel like I'm missing a configuration step somewhere in the program.cs file but I don't know what it would be. Like Identity is not looking in the right spot, or I have to specify it's in an area. Help me Obi-wan.

Answer 1

I figured it out myself. This is what worked to create an identity redirect into an Area with my own custom controller/path/view instead of using the asp.net core built in magical identity pages.

1. Add an endpoint in program.cs to map the route.

    endpoints.MapAreaControllerRoute(
    name: "Buffoon", 
    areaName: "Buffoon", 
    pattern: "Buffoon/{controller=Account}/{action=Login}");
   

2. Create the Area in your code; Right click on the Website, select Add > New Scaffolded item, Select Area, Input Area Name.

3. Add your controller and view in the area to match with your route defaults.

4. Tag your controller inside your area with [Area("Area_Name")]. In my example above I would have used [Area("Buffoon")]

5. In the builder configuration area of your program.cs file set the login path variable inside the application cookie. Using my example above;

builder.Services.ConfigureApplicationCookie(cke => { cke.LoginPath = "/Buffoon/Account/Login"; });

6. Add your identity to the builder configuration area. I'm using Sql Server with Entity Framework so here is an example of what I already had configured prior to this. (User is a custom class inheriting from IdentityUser and MyDbContext is my custom EF context inheriting from IdentityDbContext<User>).

builder.Services.AddIdentity<User, IdentityRole>(cfg => { cfg.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true; }).AddEntityFrameworkStores<MyDbContext>();

7. Ensure you have added app.UseAuthentication(); and app.UseAuthorization(); to your application configuration section of the program.cs file.

8. Lastly I put an [Authorize] attribute on my default route home controller and upon hitting that, the redirect happened into my newly created Area and displayed my login view.