ASP.Net Core Change Default Views Folder Location

Question

I'm trying to change the default views location so the following works:

[Route("")]
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

The location of where I want the views is /MVC/Views/ControllerName/Index(MethodName)

I've attempt by adding the following to Startup => ConfigureServices (IServiceCollection)

services.Configure<RazorViewEngineOptions>(o =>
{
    o.AreaViewLocationFormats.Clear();
    o.AreaViewLocationFormats.Add("/MVC/Views/{1}/{0}" + RazorViewEngine.ViewExtension);
});

The following works but I would prefer for it to default to the correct path

return View("/MVC/Views/Home/Index.cshtml");

Answer 1

As stated in this answer:

From .Net-Core v2.0 upwards you can use ViewLocationFormats and AreaViewLocationFormats in RazorViewEngineOptions to modify the View look-up.

The option you are looking for is ViewLocationFormats since you're not using View Areas.

Your Solution would be along these lines:

services.Configure<RazorViewEngineOptions>(o =>
    {
        o.ViewLocationFormats.Clear();
        o.ViewLocationFormats.Add("/MVC/Views/{1}/{0}" + RazorViewEngine.ViewExtension);
        o.ViewLocationFormats.Add("/MVC/Views/Shared/{0}" + RazorViewEngine.ViewExtension);
    });

The last line is only needed if you have the shared Layouts and Paritals at that location and not in the Standard Folder.

Answer 2

The accepted answer is correct, if anyone is looking for changing the default view folder location for Areas (like me), here is the solution:

services.Configure<RazorViewEngineOptions>(options =>
{
    options.AreaViewLocationFormats.Clear();
    options.AreaViewLocationFormats
        .Add($"/Path/To/Views/{{1}}/{{0}}{RazorViewEngine.ViewExtension}");
    options.AreaViewLocationFormats
        .Add($"/Path/To/Views/Shared/{{0}}{RazorViewEngine.ViewExtension}");
});