将路由绑定到MVC4中的自定义物理路径

Question

I want to set up the routes to open views depend on the custom parameter "theme", like this:

http://localhost/black/home   to open  ~/themes/black/views/home/index.cshtml
http://localhost/white/home   to open  ~/themes/white/views/home/index.cshtml

the name of theme is dynamic, and I registered routes like this:

    routes.MapRoute("ThemeRoute", "{theme}/{controller}/{action}/{id}"
        , new
        {
            theme = "default",
            controller = "Home",
            action = "Index",
            id = UrlParameter.Optional
        });

but it doesn't work. How could I bind the custom route "{theme}/{controller}/{action}/{id}" to the custom physical path like "~/themes/{theme}/views/{view}/{action}"? or impossible? I'd appreciate if anyone could give me advices.

Update: I decompiled the class System.Web.Mvc.RazorViewEngine and find out how to define my own custom physical path, like this:

  public sealed class ThemeViewEngine : RazorViewEngine
  { 
        private ThemeViewEngine(IViewPageActivator viewPageActivator)
            : base(viewPageActivator)
        {
            //...
            AreaViewLocationFormats = new[]
            {
                "~/Areas/{2}/Themes/{3}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
                "~/Areas/{2}/Themes/{3}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml",
                "~/Areas/{2}/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
                "~/Areas/{2}/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml"
            };
            //...
        }
  }

then override the method FindView and added the engine to ViewEngines.Engines in Global.asax, now the ViewEngine can find view pages in my defined paths.But the route still don't accept the url {theme}/{controller}/{action}/{id} ,it seems that the route can't recognize the {theme} is the same thing with what has the same name in the engine. so I use the query string and cookie to control the theme for now,like this:

http://localhost/home?theme=black   to open  ~/themes/black/views/home/index.cshtml
http://localhost/home?theme=white   to open  ~/themes/white/views/home/index.cshtml

but it's not prefect, I still need help or find the way by myself.

Answer 1

How about using Areas to organized your two themes. You can have two areas: "Black" and "White". Each of them has its own controllers and actions. The route pattern would be: {AreaName}/{Controller}/{Action}/{Id}. Check this link for how to use areas. http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/.net/net_asp/mvc/article.php/c20227/Using-Areas-in-ASPNET-MVC-Application.htm