MVC-Routing

Routing in MVC (Model-View-Controller) is the process of mapping incoming requests to the appropriate controller and action method.

Advantages of Routing

1. Clean and SEO-Friendly URLs - Users see meaningful URLs like /Products/Details/1 instead of query strings.
2. Flexibility - Developers can define custom routes for different scenarios.
3. Extensibility - Supports complex route patterns with constraints.

How Routing Works

1. Request URL - The user enters a URL in the browser.
2. Route Matching - The routing engine matches the URL against the defined routes in the RouteConfig file (or endpoint routing in newer frameworks like ASP.NET Core).
3. Controller and Action Selection - Once a match is found, the request is routed to the corresponding controller and action method.
4. Execution - The action method processes the request and returns the appropriate result, such as an HTML page or JSON data.

Types of Routing

There are two types routing in MVC.

1. Convention-Based Routing (Classic Routing)
2. Attribute Routing

1. Convention-Based Routing (Classic Routing)

Routes are defined in RouteConfig or Startup.

Example

routes.MapRoute(
    name: "ProductRoute",
    url: "Products/{category}/{id}",
    defaults: new { controller = "Products", action = "Details", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);

2. Attribute Routing

Routes are defined directly in controllers using attributes.

Example

[Route("Products/Details/{id}")]
public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
    // Your code here
}