.net MVC default routing

Question

Recently I came across this question:

I have this route from RouteConfig

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

 routes.MapRoute(
     "",
     "{controller}/{action}/{productName}",
     new
     {
        action = "Show",
        productName = "aaaa"
     }
   );
}

Now they need to add a routing to make sure all products that's no longer exist or have IDs changed will be displayed to a product.

The recommended solution is to have:

routes.MapRoute(
    "Product",
    "Product/{action}/{productName}",
    new { action = "Show", productName = "aaa" }
);

but with no controller in the default value for route, it will throw an exception of

The matched route does not include a 'controller' route value, which is required.

So it is possible to define a route with default routing but no controller specified?

Answer 1

Stephen is correct, it is not possible to make a route without specifying controller. However, it is possible to use a default controller value and not pass the value for {controller} in the URL.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Product",
    "Product/{action}/{productName}",
    new { controller = "Product", action = "Show", productName = "aaa" }
);

Also, you should be careful how you specify your other defaults. What you have defined here are optional values for action and productName, which default to what you specified in the defaults.

Therefore, the following URLs will function:

• /Product
• /Product/Show

Usually it doesn't make any sense to make a "default" product. It would make more sense to make action and productName into required parameters in the URL.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Product",
    "Product/{action}/{productName}",
    new { controller = "Product" }
);