MVC4 Default Route to point to an area

Question

I have 2 areas in my project:

Areas | Admin
Areas | FrontEnd

What I would like is when I visit the site, the default route should load Controllers / Views / Models from the FrontEnd area. It's normal to have Url/Admin for an admin panel but I would rather not have to force Url/FrontEnd (or some other variation). Basically I don't want to use the Controller / Model / View folders on the root level.

I'm not sure how to change the code to allow this or even it's an advisable method. Could someone provide some guidance please?

What I have:

routes.MapRoute(
                "Admin_default",
                "Admin/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                new { 
                    area = "Admin",
                    controller = "Home", 
                    action = "Index", 
                    id = UrlParameter.Optional 
                },
                namespaces: new[] { "WebsiteEngine.Areas.Admin.Controllers" }
            );

            routes.MapRoute(
                name: "Default",
                url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                defaults: new { 
                    area = "FrontEnd", 
                    controller = "Home", 
                    action = "Index", 
                    id = UrlParameter.Optional 
                },
                namespaces: new[] { "WebsiteEngine.Areas.FrontEnd.Controllers" }
            );

However this produces an error:

The view 'Index' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched:
~/Views/Home/Index.aspx
~/Views/Home/Index.ascx
~/Views/Shared/Index.aspx
~/Views/Shared/Index.ascx
~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml
~/Views/Home/Index.vbhtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.cshtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.vbhtml

I do have views available in the areas and this doesn't look like it's looking there.

Answer 1

I believe you can just do something like this:

// Areas/Admin/AdminAreaRegistration.cs
public class AdminAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
    public override string AreaName
    {
        get { return "Admin"; }
    }

    public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
    {
        context.MapRoute(
            name: "Admin_Default", 
            url: "Admin/{controller}/{action}/{id}", 
            defaults: new 
            {
                area = "Admin",
                controller = "Home", 
                action = "Index", 
                id = UrlParameter.Optional 
            });
    }
}


// Areas/Admin/FrontEndAreaRegistration.cs
public class FrontEndAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
    public override string AreaName
    {
        get { return "FrontEnd"; }
    }

    public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
    {
        context.MapRoute(
            name: "FrontEnd_Default", 
            url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}", 
            defaults: new 
            {
                area = "FrontEnd",
                controller = "Home", 
                action = "Index", 
                id = UrlParameter.Optional 
           });
    }
}

// Global.asax.cs
protected void Application_Start()
{
    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
    ...
}

Now, in your RouteConfig class, you probably have a Default route set up. Bear in mind that as long as you call AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas before you call RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes, the routes that you set up in the areas may override the routes you set up in RouteConfig. (Routes are evaluated in the order they appear in the Routes collection, and .MapRoute pushes new routes to the end)