Why do ASP.NET MVC URLs need Index

Question

Struggling to work out how to have the following

http://localhost/star/regulus

the only way it will work is to have a web address of

http://localhost/star/index/regulus

This is my routes

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

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "Default",
    url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

routes.MapRoute( "", "star/{sstar}", new { Controller = "star", id = UrlParameter.Optional });

and in the Controller, I set up the View as :-

return View("~/views/star.cshtml", oStar);

so you can see I'm not using Index.cshtml

Any ideas how I get the top web address, not the second one.

Answer 1

You need to rearrange your routes

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "StarRoute",
    url: "star/{sstar}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Star", action = "Star", sstar = UrlParameter.Optional}
);

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "Default",
    url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

The default controller should usually be the last route registered

Assuming controller

public class StarController :Controller {
    public ActionResult Star(string sstar){
        //...other code that uses sstar parameter
        return View();
    }
}

The view should be located at...

~/Views/Star/Star.cshtml 

...for the following URIs to work:

http://localhost/star/regulus  
http://localhost/star?sstar=regulus
http://localhost/star/sirius  
http://localhost/star?sstar=sirius