Question

How should I configure the following non area routes?

/foo/{controller}/{action}/{id}
maps to controllers in namespace myapp.foo.

/{controller}/{action}/{id}
maps to controllers in namespace myapp.

I also have 2 areas, bar and baz, they are registered with registeraAllAreas.

My current setup

This is my current setup. It gives the problem below when I use the url /Home/Index.

routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.IgnoreRoute("myapp/elmah.axd/{*pathInfo}");

AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

routes.MapRoute(
    "foo", // Route name
    "foo/{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
    new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }, // Parameter defaults
    new string[] { "myapp.Controllers.foo" }
);

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default", // Route name
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }, // Parameter defaults
    new string[] { "myapp.Controllers" }
);

Multiple types were found that match the controller named ‘Menu’. This
can happen if the route that services this request
(‘foo/{controller}/{action}/{id}’) does not specify namespaces to
search for a controller that matches the request.

The request for ‘Menu’ has found the following matching controllers:
myapp.Controllers.MenuController
myapp.Areas.bar.Controllers.MenuController
myapp.Areas.baz.Controllers.MenuController

Clearly there’s something I’m doing the wrong way.

Update

I also get the wrong adress generated when I use:

<% using (Ajax.BeginForm("SaveSomething", "Home", ...

It renders <form target="/foo/Home/SaveSomething"

I’m guessing that one cannot reliably use {controller} in two routes in the same area.

Update 2

It seems to work much better when I put the /foo route registration at the bottom.
This raises the question, what is considered a/the default route? (As the default route is reccomended to be put at the very end.)

Answer 1

You have two controllers that has the name MenuController so MVC doesn’t know which one to use if you don’t give it more information. In you areas you probably have a files named something like <YourAreaName>AreaRegistration. Open those files and update the RegisterArea method so you route the request to the right controller.

From your error message it seems like the route is getting mapped to foo/{controller}/{action}/{id}, which doesn’t have a MenuController. My guess is that you have a action link on a page under foo something something. That will generate an incorrect link if you don’t specify the area for the link.

Try this to use the default route with ActionLink:

@Html.ActionLink("Some text", "action", "controller", new { area = "" }, null)

If you want the request to go to a specific area just write it down in the call.

UPDATE: The problem is that when you write something like Ajax.BeginForm("SaveSomething", "Home",...) it will match the first route. You can’t solve this by putting the area in the BeginForm statement as I suggested before since the foo route is not an area. You have two options, 1: move the foo part to an area, 2: put the foo route after the default route. If you put the default route before the foo route you will get a hard time rendering urls as long as you have foo in the same area as the default route (the default area), since the route engine will always find the default one first. However, you will be able to catch request to the foo route. So my best suggestion is to put the foo route in an area.