My routing isn't working

Question

I have a View folder structure like this:

Views
    Rooms
        Resorts
            Index.cshtml
            Suites.cshtml
            .....

I want the controller folder structure to match

Controllers
    Rooms
        ResortsController.cs

I added a new mapRoute

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

But the controller for the View isn't being found. I have tried localhost/Rooms and localhost/Rooms/Resorts/Index -

both with the same result.

What am I missing?

EDIT: I need the URLS to look like Rooms/Resorts/Suites etc. per business requirements and I need to do this without using Areas. I will have multiple URLs that use the same Action name, like Rooms/Resorts/Suites, Rooms/Suites/Suites, Rooms/AwesomeSuites/Suites. So there is a point to using sub folders - to organize and to have more than one view named Suites.

Is what I need to do possible without using Areas?

Answer 1

Well, as far as I know the routing doesn't care about that extra folder (Rooms) that you created so it most likely tries to resolve the view from Views/Resorts/ and not from Views/Rooms/Resorts. If you need that kind of separation, like having a ResortsController somewhere else in the structure you should use Areas. You could for example create an Area named Rooms!

Answer 2

Can you try:

routes.MapRoute( "Rooms", "Rooms/Resorts/{id}", new {controller = "Resorts", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional} );

Answer 3

I solved my issue. Using my mapped route in my question, and keeping the folder structure intact that I implemented, I created a custom view engine that will dynamically create a path to look for the view.

public class CustomRazorViewEngine : RazorViewEngine
{
    public CustomRazorViewEngine()
    {
        ViewLocationFormats = new string[] { "~/Views/%1/{1}/{0}.cshtml"};
        MasterLocationFormats = new string[] { "~/Views/%1/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
                       "~/Views/Shared/%1/{0}.cshtml"};
        PartialViewLocationFormats = new string[] { "~/Views/Rooms/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
                        "~/Views/Shared/%1/{0}.cshtml"};
        FileExtensions = new string[] { "cshtml"};
    }

    protected override IView CreatePartialView(ControllerContext controllerContext, string partialPath)
    {
        var path = GetPath(controllerContext.Controller.GetType().Namespace);
        return base.CreatePartialView(controllerContext, partialPath.Replace("%1", path));
    }

    protected override IView CreateView(ControllerContext controllerContext, string viewPath, string masterPath)
    {
        var path = GetPath(controllerContext.Controller.GetType().Namespace);
        return base.CreateView(controllerContext, viewPath.Replace("%1", path), masterPath.Replace("%1", path));
    }

    protected override bool FileExists(ControllerContext controllerContext, string virtualPath)
    {
        var path = GetPath(controllerContext.Controller.GetType().Namespace);
        return base.FileExists(controllerContext, virtualPath.Replace("%1", path));
    }


    private string GetPath(string nameSpace)
    {
        var split = nameSpace.Split('.');
        int startingIndex = 0;
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        foreach(string s in split)
        {
            startingIndex++;

            if (s == "Controllers")
            {
                break;
            }
        }

        for(int x = startingIndex; x < split.Length; x++)
        {
            sb.Append(split[x]);
            if (x != split.Length - 1)
            {
                sb.Append("/");
            }
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }

So as long as the folder structure is the same in the View folder and Controllers folder, the CustomRazorViewEngine will find the view.