System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.Action Throwing ArgumentNullException inserting into RouteCollection

Question

I'm getting the following error on a Html.Action() call and can't figure out why.

Here's the call itself from my Views/home/Index.cshtml file:

<a id="btn-spin-login" href="@Url.Action("Index", "Account")" class="sprite">Login</a>

I'm getting the following error on the error stream. This only seem to happen after the app pool recycles at the preset time. If I go in to recycle it again the error goes away, which makes it harder to debug.

One caveat is that I am putting my controllers in the same folder as the Views, not in the Controllers folder.

---

System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: item
   at System.Web.Routing.RouteCollection.InsertItem(Int32 index, RouteBase item)
   at System.Web.Mvc.RouteCollectionExtensions.FilterRouteCollectionByArea(RouteCollection routes, String areaName, Boolean& usingAreas)
   at System.Web.Mvc.RouteCollectionExtensions.GetVirtualPathForArea(RouteCollection routes, RequestContext requestContext, String name, RouteValueDictionary values, Boolean& usingAreas)
   at System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.GenerateUrl(String routeName, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, RouteCollection routeCollection, RequestContext requestContext, Boolean includeImplicitMvcValues)
   at System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.GenerateUrl(String routeName, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues)
   at System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.Action(String actionName, String controllerName)
   at ASP._Page_Views_Home_Index_cshtml.Execute() in d:\www\live.wof.com\Sony.Wof\Views\home\Index.cshtml:line 54
   at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy()
   at System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy()
   at System.Web.WebPages.StartPage.ExecutePageHierarchy()
   at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass1a.b__17()
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
   at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult)
   at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass25.b__22(IAsyncResult asyncResult)

Answer 1

The problem is that your RouteCollection (RouteTable.Routes) has null records, the RouteCollection by default is not thread safe, and in my case this problem occurred when I registered new routes in many threads. Now I'm using the RouteCollection.GetWriteLock to have it be thread safe and now my problem is resolved.

Answer 2

You need to mix single and double quotes. Change the double quotes around @Url.Action to single quotes and it should work.

<a id="btn-spin-login" href='@Url.Action("Index", "Account")' class="sprite">Login</a>