Question

So in order accomplish what I asked in this post I did the following:

    [iPhone]
    [ActionName("Index")]
    public ActionResult IndexIPhone()
    {
        return new Test.Areas.Mobile.Controllers.HomeController().Index();
    }

    [ActionName("Index")]
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View(); 
    }

Which still serves the same view as the Index action method in this controller. Even though I can see it executing the Test.Areas.Mobile.Controllers.HomeController().Index() action method just fine. What’s going on here? And how do I serve the Index view from Mobile area without changing the request URL (as asked in the original post referenced above)?

Answer 1

You have a few options:

1. Redirect to the Action you’d like to return: return RedirectToAction("Action-I-Want").
2. Return the View by name: return View("The-View-I-Want").

Note that with the 2nd approach you’d have to put your view in the “Shared” folder for all controllers to be able to find it and return it. This can get messy if you end up putting all your views there.

As a side note: The reason your work doesn’t find the view is because default view engine looks for the view in the folder that “belongs” to the current executing controller context, regardless of what code you’re calling.

Edit:

It is possible to group all “mobile” views in the same folder. On your Global.asax (or where ever you’re setting up your ViewEngine, just add the path to your mobile View in the AreaViewLocationFormats. Mind you, you’ll still have to name your views differently.

You can also write your own view engine. I’d do something like detecting the browser and then serving the right file. You could setup a convention like View.aspx, and View.m.aspx.

Anyhow, just take a look at WebFormViewEngine and you’ll figure out what works best for you.