Link generation not creating proper links to and within area

Question

I have an ASP.NET Core project with only one area called Data. The default Home controller is still in no area.

Problem

The linking to the area Data in the project does not work. The routing works fine though.

If I manually enter the link localhost/Data I get the correct action Index of the controller Home of the area Data. So the routing definitely works.

However <a asp-area="Data" asp-controller="Home" asp-action="Index">Data</a> gets evaluated to the link localhost/?area=Data, which does not work and should actually be localhost/Data.

Links within the area Data are also not evaluating properly. What should be localhost/Data/Controller is just localhost/Controller. Again manually entering the link works fine.

Configurations

How I configured the project so far to try and get the links working: - Routes are added as follows

app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
    // Default Route
    routes.MapRoute(
        name: "default",
        template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
    );
    // Area Route
    routes.MapRoute(
        name: "areas",
        template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
    );
});

• All controllers within the Data have the attribute [Area("Data")].
• Added a TagHelper _ViewImport.cshtml in Areas/Data/Views @addTagHelper *, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.TagHelpers.

I in general tried to follow the official documentation, but nothing appears to work.

Question

So I obviously would like to get the links working without "hardcoding" them and am wondering why the intended behaviour does not seem to work.

Any hints are appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to change the order of your routes. You should start with more specific routes and then to more general routes:

app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
    // More specific area route
    routes.MapRoute(
       name: "areas",
       template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
    );
    // Any other (default)
    routes.MapRoute(
        name: "default",
        template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
    );

});