Question

I recently made some changes to my MVC 3 project.

When I run it, the Views dont include any files like Site.css.
When I debug my Index() ActionController, it jumps directly to the View, withouting including files like _Layout.cshtml. So i just get a View with a white background, no menus etc.

The Global.asax.cs file contains following code:

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

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

    routes.MapRoute(
        "Default2", // Route name
        "{controller}/{action}/{id}/{page}", // URL with parameters
        new { controller = "Survey", action = "DisplayQuestions", id = "", page = "" }
    );
}

Answer 1

If the breakpoint in your controller action is being hit the routes may be wrong but that’s not a reason for _Layout.cshtml to not load.

A few things to check:

• Is your view using View() and not PartialView() (the latter ignores ViewStart.cshtml and so the _Layout.cshtml).
• Did you move your _Layout.cshtml recently / Have you renamed Shared (or created a SharedController by accident)?

• Does your view include something like this at the top which would deactivate the _Layout.cshtml?

  @{
      Layout = "";
  }
  

• Does your _ViewStart.cshtml still exist with the following code which activates the _Layout.cshtml?

  @{
      Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
  }