URL Routing Using Attribute in ASP.NET MVC 5 | Attribute Routing in ASP.NET MVC 5 | ProgrammerGuide.Net

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/10/17/attribute-routing-in-asp-net-mvc-5.aspx Routing is how ASP.NET MVC matches a URI to an action. MVC 5 supports a new type of routing, called attribute routing. As the name implies, attribute routing uses attributes to define routes. Attribute routing gives you more control over the URIs in your web application.

The earlier style of routing, called convention-based routing, is still fully supported. In fact, you can combine both techniques in the same project.

Why Attribute Routing?

For example, a socially enhanced e-commerce website could have the following routes:

{productId:int}/{productTitle}
Mapped to ProductsController.Show(int id)
{username}
Mapped to ProfilesController.Show(string username)
{username}/catalogs/{catalogId:int}/{catalogTitle}
Mapped to CatalogsController.Show(string username, int catalogId)

In previous version of ASP.NET MVC, the rules would be set in the RouteConfig.cs file, and point to the actual controller actions, as such:

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "ProductPage",
    url: "{productId}/{productTitle}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Products", action = "Show" },
    constraints: new { productId = "\\d+" }
);

When the route definitions are co-located with the actions, within the same source file rather than being declared on an external configuration class, it can make it easier to reason about the mapping between URIs and actions. The previous route definition would be set using the following, simple attribute:

[Route("{productId:int}/{productTitle}")]
public ActionResult Show(int productId) { ... }

Enabling Attribute Routing

To enable attribute routing, call MapMvcAttributeRoutes during configuration.

public class RouteConfig
{
    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
 
        routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();
    }
}

You can also combine attribute routing with convention-based routing.

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

Optional URI Parameters and Default Values

You can make a URI parameter optional by adding a question mark to the route parameter. You can also specify a default value by using the form parameter=value.

public class BooksController : Controller
{
    // eg: /books
    // eg: /books/1430210079
    [Route("books/{isbn?}")]
    public ActionResult View(string isbn)
    {
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(isbn))
        {
            return View("OneBook", GetBook(isbn));
        }
        return View("AllBooks", GetBooks());
    }
 
    // eg: /books/lang
    // eg: /books/lang/en
    // eg: /books/lang/he
    [Route("books/lang/{lang=en}")]
    public ActionResult ViewByLanguage(string lang)
    {
        return View("OneBook", GetBooksByLanguage(lang));
    }
}

In this example, both /books and /books/1430210079 will route to the “View” action, the former will result with listing all books, and the latter will list the specific book. Both /books/lang and /books/lang/en will be treated the same.

Route Prefixes

Often, the routes in a controller all start with the same prefix. For example:

public class ReviewsController : Controller
{
    // eg: /reviews
    [Route("reviews")]
    public ActionResult Index() { ... }
    // eg: /reviews/5
    [Route("reviews/{reviewId}")]
    public ActionResult Show(int reviewId) { ... }
    // eg: /reviews/5/edit
    [Route("reviews/{reviewId}/edit")]
    public ActionResult Edit(int reviewId) { ... }
}

You can set a common prefix for an entire controller by using the [RoutePrefix] attribute:

[RoutePrefix("reviews")]
public class ReviewsController : Controller
{
    // eg.: /reviews
    [Route]
    public ActionResult Index() { ... }
    // eg.: /reviews/5
    [Route("{reviewId}")]
    public ActionResult Show(int reviewId) { ... }
    // eg.: /reviews/5/edit
    [Route("{reviewId}/edit")]
    public ActionResult Edit(int reviewId) { ... }
}

Use a tilde (~) on the method attribute to override the route prefix if needed:

[RoutePrefix("reviews")]
public class ReviewsController : Controller
{
    // eg.: /spotlight-review
    [Route("~/spotlight-review")]
    public ActionResult ShowSpotlight() { ... }
 
    ...
}

Default Route

You can also apply the [Route] attribute on the controller level, capturing the action as a parameter. That route would then be applied on all actions in the controller, unless a specific [Route] has been defined on a specific action, overriding the default set on the controller.

[RoutePrefix("promotions")]
[Route("{action=index}")]
public class ReviewsController : Controller
{
    // eg.: /promotions
    public ActionResult Index() { ... }
 
    // eg.: /promotions/archive
    public ActionResult Archive() { ... }
 
    // eg.: /promotions/new
    public ActionResult New() { ... }
 
    // eg.: /promotions/edit/5
    [Route("edit/{promoId:int}")]
    public ActionResult Edit(int promoId) { ... }
}

Route Constraints

Route constraints let you restrict how the parameters in the route template are matched. The general syntax is {parameter:constraint}. For example:

// eg: /users/5
[Route("users/{id:int}"]
public ActionResult GetUserById(int id) { ... }
 
// eg: users/ken
[Route("users/{name}"]
public ActionResult GetUserByName(string name) { ... }

Here, the first route will only be selected if the "id" segment of the URI is an integer. Otherwise, the second route will be chosen.

This article was originally posted on msdn blog

URL Routing Using Attribute in ASP.NET MVC 5 | Attribute Routing in ASP.NET MVC 5