Basically I have a CMS backend I built using ASP.NET MVC and now I'm moving on to the frontend site and need to be able to load pages from my CMS database, based on the route entered.
So if the user enters example.com/students/information, MVC would look in the pages table to see if a page exists that has a permalink that matches students/information, if so it would redirect to the page controller and then load the page data from the database and return it to the view for display.
So far I have tried to have a catch all route, but it only works for two URL segments, so /students/information, but not /students/information/fall. I can't find anything online on how to accomplish this, so I though I would ask here, before I find and open source ASP.NET MVC CMS and dissect the code.
Here is the route configuration I have so far, but I feel there is a better way to do this.
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
// Default route to handle core pages
routes.MapRoute(null,"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new { controller = "Index" }
);
// CMS route to handle routing to the PageController to check the database for the route.
var db = new MvcCMS.Models.MvcCMSContext();
//var page = db.CMSPages.Where(p => p.Permalink == )
routes.MapRoute(
null,
"{*.}",
new { controller = "Page", action = "Index" }
);
}
If anybody can point me in the right direction on how I would go about loading CMS pages from the database, with up to three URL segments, and still be able to load core pages, that have a controller and action predefined.
You can use a constraint to decide whether to override the default routing logic.
public class CmsUrlConstraint : IRouteConstraint
{
public bool Match(HttpContextBase httpContext, Route route, string parameterName, RouteValueDictionary values, RouteDirection routeDirection)
{
var db = new MvcCMS.Models.MvcCMSContext();
if (values[parameterName] != null)
{
var permalink = values[parameterName].ToString();
return db.CMSPages.Any(p => p.Permalink == permalink);
}
return false;
}
}
use it in route definition like,
routes.MapRoute(
name: "CmsRoute",
url: "{*permalink}",
defaults: new {controller = "Page", action = "Index"},
constraints: new { permalink = new CmsUrlConstraint() }
);
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
Now if you have an 'Index' action in 'Page' Controller like,
public ActionResult Index(string permalink)
{
//load the content from db with permalink
//show the content with view
}
all urls will be caught by the first route and be verified by the constraint.
if the permalink exists in db the url will be handled by Index action in Page controller.
if not the constraint will fail and the url will fallback to default route(i dont know if you have any other controllers in the project and how you will decide your 404 logic).
EDIT
To avoid re querying the cms page in the Index action in Page controller, one can use the HttpContext.Items dictionary, like
in the constraint
var db = new MvcCMS.Models.MvcCMSContext();
if (values[parameterName] != null)
{
var permalink = values[parameterName].ToString();
var page = db.CMSPages.Where(p => p.Permalink == permalink).FirstOrDefault();
if(page != null)
{
HttpContext.Items["cmspage"] = page;
return true;
}
return false;
}
return false;
then in the action,
public ActionResult Index(string permalink)
{
var page = HttpContext.Items["cmspage"] as CMSPage;
//show the content with view
}
I use simpler approach that doesn't require any custom router handling.
Simply create a single/global Controller that handles a few optional parameters, then process those parameters as you like:
//Route all traffic through this controller with the base URL being the domain
[Route("")]
[ApiController]
public class ValuesController : ControllerBase
{
//GET api/values
[HttpGet("{a1?}/{a2?}/{a3?}/{a4?}/{a5?}")]
public ActionResult<IEnumerable<string>> Get(string a1 = "", string a2 = "", string a3 = "", string a4 = "", string a5 = "")
{
//Custom logic processing each of the route values
return new string[] { a1, a2, a3, a4, a5 };
}
}
Sample output at example.com/test1/test2/test3
["test1","test2","test3","",""]
Related
I'm using ASP.NET MVC 4 with C#. I'm using areas and it's named like "Admin"
Here is my route config;
public static class RouteConfig
{
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(name: "PageBySlug",
url: "{slug}",
defaults: new {controller = "Home", action = "RenderPage"},
constraints: new {slug = ".+"});
routes.MapRoute(name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new {controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional},
namespaces: new[] { "Web.Frontend.Controllers.Controllers" });
}
}
I generated frontend page links like; "products/apple-iphone"
So I want to call them like this.
But the error is: The code can't get the controller / action method.
I used frontend page links like;
#Html.ActionLink(linkItem.Title, "RenderPage", routeValues: new {controller = "Home", slug = linkItem.PageSlug})
#Html.RouteLink(linkItem.Title, routeName: "PageBySlug", routeValues: new { controller = "Home", action = "RenderPage", slug = linkItem.PageSlug })
#linkItem.Title
#linkItem.Title
They are rendering url links like; http://localhost:1231/products/apple-iphone
It's like what I want. But when I click any link, asp.net mvc gives me this error:
Server Error in '/' Application.
The resource cannot be found.
Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Requested URL: /products/apple-iphone
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.6.1069.1
Here is my controller;
namespace Web.Frontend.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : BaseFrontendController
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult RenderPage(string slug)
{
return View();
}
}
}
So how can I catch every link request like this combined slug and turn my coded view ?
The problem is, When you request products/iphone, the routing engine don't know whether you meant the slug "products/iphone" or the controller "products" and action method "iphone".
You can write a custom route constraint to take care of this. This constraint will check whether the slug part of the urls is a valid controller or not, if yes,the controller action will be executed.
public class SlugConstraint : IRouteConstraint
{
public bool Match(HttpContextBase httpContext, Route route, string parameterName,
RouteValueDictionary values, RouteDirection routeDirection)
{
var asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
//Get all the controller names
var controllerTypes = (from t in asm.GetExportedTypes()
where typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(t)
select t.Name.Replace("Controller", ""));
var slug = values["slug"];
if (slug != null)
{
if (controllerTypes.Any(x => x.Equals(slug.ToString(),
StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)))
{
return false;
}
else
{
var c = slug.ToString().Split('/');
if (c.Any())
{
var firstPart = c[0];
if (controllerTypes.Any(x => x.Equals(firstPart,
StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)))
{
return false;
}
}
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
Now use this route constraint when you register your custom route definition for the slug. make sure you use {*slug} in the route pattern. The * indicates it is anything(Ex : "a/b/c")(Variable number of url segments- more like a catch all)
routes.MapRoute(name: "PageBySlug",
url: "{*slug}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "RenderPage" },
constraints: new { slug = new SlugConstraint() }
, namespaces: new string[] { "Web.Frontend.Controllers.Controllers" });
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
, new string[] { "Web.Frontend.Controllers.Controllers" });
you can provide only this type of link
#linkItem.Title
Because Routetable find your route using Route name provided by you. so controller name and action name is not necessary.
I have a website in MVC4 that I am developing that requires some custom routing. It is a simple website with a few pages. For example:
/index
/plan
/investing
... etc.. a few others
Through an admin panel the site administrator can create "branded" sites, that basically mirror the above content, but swap out a few things like branded company name, logo etc. Once created, the URLs would look like
/{personalizedurl}/index
/{personalizedurl}/plan
/{personalizedurl}/investing
... etc... (exact same pages as the non branded pages.
I am validating the personalized urls with an action filter attribute on the controller method and returning a 404 if not found in the database.
Here is an example of one of my actions:
[ValidatePersonalizedUrl]
[ActionName("plan")]
public ActionResult Plan(string url)
{
return View("Plan", GetSite(url));
}
Easy-peasy so far and works pretty well with the following routes:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Admin",
url: "Admin/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Admin", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{action}",
defaults: new { controller = "Default", action = "Index" }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"Branded", // Route name
"{url}/{action}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Default", action = "Index" } // Parameter defaults
);
/*
routes.MapRoute(
"BrandedHome", // Route name
"{url}/", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Default", action = "Index" } // Parameter defaults
);
*/
}
The problem I currently have is with the bottom commented out route. I'd like to be able to go to /{personalizedurl}/ and have it find the correct action (Index action in default controller). right now with the bottom line commented out, I get a 404 because it thinks its an action and its not found. When I un-comment it, the index pages, work however the individual actions do not /plan for example because it thinks its a pUrl and can't find it in the database.
Anyway, sorry for the long question. Any help or suggestions on how to set this up would be greatly appreciated.
James
The problem is that MVC will use the first matching url and since the second route is:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{action}",
defaults: new { controller = "Default", action = "Index" }
);
and that matches your /{personalizedurl}/ it will route to Default/{action}.
What you want gets a bit tricky! I assume the personalizing is to be dynamic, not some static list of branded companies and you wouldn't want to recompile and deploy every time you add/remove a new one.
I think you will need to handle this in the controller, it won't work well in routing; unless it is a static list of personalized companies. You will need the ability to check if the first part is one of your actions and to check if it is a valid company, I will give you an example with simple string arrays. I believe you will be building the array by query some sort of data store for your personalized companies. I also have created a quick view model called PersonalizedViewModel that takes a string for the name.
Your routing will be simplified:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Admin",
url: "Admin/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Admin", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{url}/{action}",
defaults: new { controller = "Default", action = "Index", url = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
Here is the view model my example uses:
public class PersonalizedViewModel
{
public string Name { get; private set; }
public PersonalizedViewModel(string name)
{
Name = name;
}
}
And the Default controller:
public class DefaultController : Controller
{
private static readonly IEnumerable<string> personalizedSites = new[] { "companyA", "companyB" };
private static readonly IEnumerable<string> actions = new[] { "index", "plan", "investing", "etc" };
public ActionResult Index(string url)
{
string view;
PersonalizedViewModel viewModel;
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(url) || actions.Any(a => a.Equals(url, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)))
{
view = url;
viewModel = new PersonalizedViewModel("Default");
}
else if (personalizedSites.Any(s => s.Equals(url, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)))
{
view = "index";
viewModel = new PersonalizedViewModel(url);
}
else
{
return View("Error404");
}
return View(view, viewModel);
}
public ActionResult Plan(string url)
{
PersonalizedViewModel viewModel;
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(url))
{
viewModel = new PersonalizedViewModel("Default");
}
else if (personalizedSites.Any(s => s.Equals(url, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)))
{
viewModel = new PersonalizedViewModel(url);
}
else
{
return View("Error404");
}
return View(viewModel);
}
}
In my project there is an action
public ActionResult Lead(int leadId)
{
return View();
}
and in the View an ActionLink was created like this
#Html.ActionLink("Old Link", "Lead", "Home", new { leadId = 7 }, null)
But after some time, to make clean URL, I have changed the name of parameter of that action
public ActionResult Lead(int id)
{
return View();
}
And ActionLink change accordingly
#Html.ActionLink("New Link", "Lead", "Home", new { id = 5 }, null)
But old link was shared in multiple social network sites. Whenever anyone clicks on that old link, he is redirect to the page www.xyx.com/Home/Lead?leadId=7
But now in my application, no such URL exists.
To handle this problem, I was thinking of overloading, but MVC action doesn't support overloading.
I have created another Action with same name with extra parameter, and redirect to new action, but it doesn't work.
public ActionResult Lead(int leadId, int extra=0)
{
return RedirectToAction("Lead", "Home", new { id = leadId });
}
I have found one link to handle such situation, but It is not working in my case.
ASP.NET MVC ambiguous action methods
One possibility to handle this would be to write a custom route:
public class MyRoute : Route
{
public MyRoute() : base(
"Home/Lead/{id}",
new RouteValueDictionary(new
{
controller = "Home",
action = "Lead",
id = UrlParameter.Optional,
}),
new MvcRouteHandler()
)
{
}
public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
var rd = base.GetRouteData(httpContext);
if (rd == null)
{
return null;
}
var leadId = httpContext.Request.QueryString["leadid"];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(leadId))
{
rd.Values["id"] = leadId;
}
return rd;
}
}
that you will register before the default one:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.Add(new MyRoute());
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
and now you could only have a single action:
public ActionResult Lead(int id)
{
return View();
}
Now both the following urls will work as expected:
www.xyx.com/Home/Lead/7
www.xyx.com/Home/Lead?leadId=7
I am looking to do something like:
For categories where the Controller will be CategoryController
www.mysite.com/some-category
www.mysite.com/some-category/sub-category
www.mysite.com/some-category/sub-category/another //This could go on ..
The problem is that: www.mysite.com/some-product needs to point to a ProductController. Normally this would map to the same controller.
So, how can I intercept the routing so I can check if the parameter is a Category or Product and route accordingly.
I am trying to avoid having something like www.mysite.com/category/some-category or www.mysite.com/product/some-product as I feel it will perform better on the SEO side. When I can intercept the routing, I'll forward to a product / category based on some rules that look at slugs for each etc.
You could write a custom route to serve this purpose:
public class CategoriesRoute: Route
{
public CategoriesRoute()
: base("{*categories}", new MvcRouteHandler())
{
}
public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
var rd = base.GetRouteData(httpContext);
if (rd == null)
{
return null;
}
string categories = rd.Values["categories"] as string;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(categories) || !categories.StartsWith("some-", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
{
// The url doesn't start with some- as per our requirement =>
// we have no match for this route
return null;
}
string[] parts = categories.Split('/');
// for each of the parts go hit your categoryService to determine whether
// this is a category slug or something else and return accordingly
if (!AreValidCategories(parts))
{
// The AreValidCategories custom method indicated that the route contained
// some parts which are not categories => we have no match for this route
return null;
}
// At this stage we know that all the parts of the url are valid categories =>
// we have a match for this route and we can pass the categories to the action
rd.Values["controller"] = "Category";
rd.Values["action"] = "Index";
rd.Values["categories"] = parts;
return rd;
}
}
that will be registered like that:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.Add("CategoriesRoute", new CategoriesRoute());
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
and then you can have the corresponding controller:
public class CategoryController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index(string[] categories)
{
... The categories action argument will contain a list of the provided categories
in the url
}
}
I have a bit of a problem. I have an area called Framed. This area has a home controller. The default for the site also has a home controller.
What I'm trying to do with this is have a version of each controller/action that is suitable for an IFrame, and a version that is the normal site. I do this through Master pages, and the site masterpage has many different content place holders than the framed version. For this reason I can't just swap the master page in and out. For example, http://example.com/Framed/Account/Index will show a very basic version with just your account info for use in an external site. http://example.com/Account/Index will show the same data, but inside the default site.
My IoC container is structuremap. So, I found http://odetocode.com/Blogs/scott/archive/2009/10/19/mvc-2-areas-and-containers.aspx and http://odetocode.com/Blogs/scott/archive/2009/10/13/asp-net-mvc2-preview-2-areas-and-routes.aspx. Here's my current setup.
Structuremap Init
ObjectFactory.Initialize(x =>
{
x.AddRegistry(new ApplicationRegistry());
x.Scan(s =>
{
s.AssembliesFromPath(HttpRuntime.BinDirectory);
s.AddAllTypesOf<IController>()
.NameBy(type => type.Namespace + "." + type.Name.Replace("Controller", ""));
});
});
The problem here that I found through debugging is that because the controllers have the same name (HomeController), it only registers the first one, which is the default home controller. I got creative and appended the namespace so that it would register all of my controllers.
Default Route
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { area = "", controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }, // Parameter defaults
new[] { "MySite.Controllers" }
);
Area route
context.MapRoute(
"Framed_default",
"Framed/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { area = "Framed", controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new string[] { "MySite.Areas.Framed.Controllers" }
);
As recommended by Phil Haack, I am using the namespaces as the 4th parameter
app start, just to prove the order of initialization
protected void Application_Start()
{
InitializeControllerFactory();
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
RouteConfiguration.RegisterRoutes();
}
Controller Factory
protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType)
{
IController result = null;
if (controllerType != null)
{
result = ObjectFactory.GetInstance(controllerType)
as IController;
}
return result;
}
So, when I hit /Home/Index, it passes in the correct controller type. When I hit /Framed/Home/Index, controllerType is null, which errors because no controller is returned.
It's as if MVC is ignoring my area altogether. What's going on here? What am I doing wrong?
In case anyone tries to do something similar, I used the idea from this post: Categories of controllers in MVC Routing? (Duplicate Controller names in separate Namespaces) I had to dump using areas altogether and implement something myself.
I have Controllers/HomeController.cs and Controllers/Framed/HomeController.cs
I have a class ControllerBase which all controllers in /Controllers inherit from. I have AreaController which inherits from ControllerBase which all controllers in /Controllers/Framed extend from.
Here's my Area Controller class
public class AreaController : ControllerBase
{
private string Area
{
get
{
return this.GetType().Namespace.Replace("MySite.Controllers.", "");
}
}
protected override ViewResult View(string viewName, string masterName, object model)
{
string controller = this.ControllerContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = this.ControllerContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
return base.View(String.Format("~/Views/{0}/{1}/{2}.aspx", Area, controller, viewName), masterName, model);
}
protected override PartialViewResult PartialView(string viewName, object model)
{
string controller = this.ControllerContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
viewName = this.ControllerContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
PartialViewResult result = null;
result = base.PartialView(String.Format("~/Views/{0}/{1}/{2}.aspx", Area, controller, viewName), model);
if (result != null)
return result;
result = base.PartialView(String.Format("~/Views/{0}/{1}/{2}.ascx", Area, controller, viewName), model);
if (result != null)
return result;
result = base.PartialView(viewName, model);
return result;
}
}
I had to override the view and partialview methods. This way, the controllers in my "area" can use the default methods for views and partials and support the added folder structures.
As for the Views, I have Views/Home/Index.aspx and Views/Framed/Home/Index.aspx. I use the routing as shown in the post, but here's how mine looks for reference:
var testNamespace = new RouteValueDictionary();
testNamespace.Add("namespaces", new HashSet<string>(new string[]
{
"MySite.Controllers.Framed"
}));
//for some reason we need to delare the empty version to support /framed when it does not have a controller or action
routes.Add("FramedEmpty", new Route("Framed", new MvcRouteHandler())
{
Defaults = new RouteValueDictionary(new
{
controller = "Home",
action = "Index",
id = UrlParameter.Optional
}),
DataTokens = testNamespace
});
routes.Add("FramedDefault", new Route("Framed/{controller}/{action}/{id}", new MvcRouteHandler())
{
Defaults = new RouteValueDictionary(new
{
//controller = "Home",
action = "Index",
id = UrlParameter.Optional
}),
DataTokens = testNamespace
});
var defaultNamespace = new RouteValueDictionary();
defaultNamespace.Add("namespaces", new HashSet<string>(new string[]
{
"MySite.Controllers"
}));
routes.Add("Default", new Route("{controller}/{action}/{id}", new MvcRouteHandler())
{
Defaults = new RouteValueDictionary(new
{
controller = "Home",
action = "Index",
id = UrlParameter.Optional
}),
DataTokens = defaultNamespace
});
Now I can go /Home/Index or /Framed/Home/Index on the same site and get two different views with a shared control. Ideally I'd like one controller to return one of 2 views, but I have no idea how to make that work without 2 controllers.
I had a similar issue using Structuremap with Areas. I had an Area named Admin and whenever you tried to go to /admin it would get to the StructureMap Controller Factory with a null controller type.
I fixed it by following this blog post:
http://stephenwalther.com/blog/archive/2008/08/07/asp-net-mvc-tip-30-create-custom-route-constraints.aspx
Had to add a constraint on the default route to not match if the controller was admin.
Here's my default route definition:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default",
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "MyController", action = "AnAction", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new { controller = new NotEqualConstraint("Admin")},
new string[] {"DailyDealsHQ.WebUI.Controllers"}
);
and here's the implementation of the NotEqualConstraint:
public class NotEqualConstraint : IRouteConstraint
{
private string match = String.Empty;
public NotEqualConstraint(string match)
{
this.match = match;
}
public bool Match(HttpContextBase httpContext, Route route, string parameterName, RouteValueDictionary values, RouteDirection routeDirection)
{
return String.Compare(values[parameterName].ToString(), match, true) != 0;
}
}
There's probably other ways to solve this problem, but this fixed it for me :)