Map Custom Route ASP.NET MVC5

Question

I haven't used .NET Routing before. I have a URL: http://myurl.com/Account/Login/?IsIPA=true. I want to be able to hit this URL with the following: http://myurl.com/IPA

This is the only custom route I want hit.

Can I create a route just for a single URL like this?

My code that isn't working is:

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

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

I get the error:

The constraint entry IsIPA on the route with route template Account/Login/{IsIPA}=True must have a string value or be of a type which implements System.Web.Routing.IRouteConstraint.

Answer 1

Route matching is similar to a switch case statement. The url parameter and any default values and constraints are all considered to determine whether or not it is a match with the incoming URL. If the route matches, it will then create a dictionary of route values based on the configuration. If the route does not match, the next route in the collection is tried until a match is found (or not).

This means the order that routes are specified is important. The default route matches any URL with 0, 1, 2, or 3 segments. Therefore, in most cases you will need to define your custom route before the default route.

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

    routes.MapRoute(
        name: "IPA", 
        url: "IPA", 
        defaults: new { controller = "Account", action = "Login", IsIPA = "true" });

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

The above configuration will route http://myurl.com/IPA to the Controller named Account and Action method named Login, and pass the additional route key IsIPA. This same URL will be built for the Controller/Action/IsIPA combination because it is the first one that matches in the list.

Note that the original URL http://myurl.com/Account/Login/?IsIPA=true will still work and still route to the same location. This configuration just adds an extra route to that resource.