I added an area called home, moved my controller and view to it and now I can't connect to the index view

Question

I already have controllers and views in folders under the project name. I added an Area folder and then an area inside it and called it Home and then moved my controller and index view into it. But when I connect to the index I get an error and it looks like the path where it's looking for the index is the old path, how do I change this to the new path?

Here is what I created

In 'HomeAreaRegistration' I see this under RegstrationArea

public class HomeAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration 
{
    public override string AreaName 
    {
        get 
        {
            return "Home";
        }
    }

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

But when I run the application in IE, here is what I see in the browser! It looks like it's looking for the index.cshtml in the old path location, not the new path location in the new area 'Home'

It looks like the route engine is looking in the wrong location. So here is what my RouteConfig.cs file looks like.

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

Even when I try 'https://localhost:44301/Home/Index.cshtml' it throws a HTTP 404 error.

Answer 1

you have to do below corrections in your solution:

1) Add a Folder Home in Views and place index.cshtml in it. Folder structure for view must be: Home(Area name) > Views > Home (same name as controller) > index.cshtml (as shown in picture)

2)change namespace of your Homecontroller to (Solution name).Areas.Home.Controllers

3)Also you have to refer following route pattern for area:

localhost/AreaName/Controller/Action

which in your case:

https://localhost:44301/Home/Home/Index

Hope this might solve your problem

Answer 2

The 404 error shows the main problem itself: default routing and view engine search cannot found default Index.cshtml view file in Views directory on your project (i.e. ProjectName/Views/Index.cshtml pointed by route ~/Views/Home/Index).

First, create a class to include view location search for your custom area like this example:

public class CustomView : RazorViewEngine
{
    public CustomView()
    {
        MasterLocationFormats: new[]
        {
            "~/Areas/Home/Views/{0}.cshtml",
            "~/Areas/Home/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml"
        }

        ViewLocationFormats: new[]
        {
            "~/Areas/Home/Views/{0}.cshtml",
            "~/Areas/Home/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml"
        }

        PartialViewLocationFormats = ViewLocationFormats;

        FileExtensions = new[]
        {
            "cshtml"
        };
    }
}

Then, include all areas and your custom view engine into Global.asax:

protected void Application_Start()
{
    // register all area locations
    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

    // clear default view engine
    ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();

    // add your custom view engine here
    // the custom view engine should loaded before default view engine (e.g. Razor)
    ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new CustomView());
    ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new RazorViewEngine());
}

If you have RouteConfig class on App_Start directory, make sure RegisterAllAreas has included before default route:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
    routes.MapRoute(
        name: "Default",
        url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
        defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
    );
}

Additionally, add namespace of the controller name when required or the above solution still doesn't work:

public class HomeAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration 
{
    public override string AreaName 
    {
        get 
        {
            return "Home";
        }
    }

    public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context) 
    {
        context.MapRoute(
            "Home_default",
            "Home/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
            namespaces: new[] { "ProjectName.Areas.Home.Controllers" }
        );
    }
}

NB: Create Home directory under Views if you want to follow route convension ~/Areas/Views/Home/Index, and put Index.cshtml file into it.

References:

How to set a Default Route (To an Area) in MVC

How to register areas for routing

Answer 3

your area folder structure look like this

Reister your area in Global.asax

AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

and try with this url

http://localhost:44301/Home/Home/Index