How to make an ASP.NET MVC 5 Area appear as the site root using Attribute Routing

Question

I have moved the Visual Studio 2013 template 'Home' controller into its own Area.

I am trying to make an ActionLink that points to an action on the HomeController.

However, instead of the link being rendered as :

www.site.com/Home/ActionName

I want it to render as

www.site.com/ActionName

(For all the actions in the controller).

This way the root of my site doesn't contain 'Home' in the links.

I am trying to deploy my routes using Attribute Routing, however I am lost as to how I do this, any point in the right direction would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Ok, so I figured it out:

On my controller to be used as the site root (for instance "HomeController"):

[RouteArea("Home")] // Area 
[Route("Home")] // Controller
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    [Route("~/")] // Rendered path of the Index Action www.site.com/
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    [Route("~/About")] // Rendered path of the About Action www.site.com/About
    public ActionResult About()
    {
        ViewBag.Message = "Your application description page.";

        return View();
    }

// ...And with no routing attribute on the Contact Action below, 
// The rendered path will remain in the format:
// www.site.com/Home/Home?action=Contact

    public ActionResult Contact() 
    {
        ViewBag.Message = "Your contact page.";

        return View();
    }
}

ActionLink examples (from above code):

This will now render as www.site.com

@Html.ActionLink("Home", "Index", "Home")

This will render as www.site.com/About

@Html.ActionLink("About", "About", "Home")

This will render as www.site.com/Home/Home?action=Contact

@Html.ActionLink("Contact", "Contact", "Home")

I hope this helps someone else. Thanks.