I get a 404 not found when I navigate to my route - asp.net-mvc

Question

Hello I have a Controller called help in my project like this:
public class HelpController : Controller
{
// GET: Help
public string Index()
{
return "test help";
}
}
This is my route.config file
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;
namespace ProductsApp.App_Start
{
public class RouteConfig
{
public static void RegisterRoutes (RouteCollection routes)
{
RouteTable.Routes.RouteExistingFiles = true;
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
}
}
My Global.asax
using ProductsApp.App_Start;
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;
namespace ProductsApp
{
public class WebApiApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register);
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}
}
}
When I navigate to the /Help/Index, I get a 404 server error. If I navigate to /Help. My app instantiates the Home controller. What could be wrong?

Answer 1

Do you have Areas > HelpPage inside your web? Maybe this is beign called instead of your controller.
You can implement attribute routing, with them, you can specify what is the route of that controller and method, instead of the RouteConfig.
In my opinion, this approach keeps the code more maintanable and easy to understand. And you can even, use it to make versions of your controllers.
this is an exemple of how you can achieve Attribute routing:
[RoutePrefix("api/v2/network/account")]
public class AccountController : ApiController
{
[Route("{login}"), HttpGet]
public Account GetAccountByLogin(string login)
{
// Code Logic Here
}
}
And how you call this method? you will not type yourapi/api/Account/GetAccountByLogin/userlogin because your api or mvc won't recognize that url, instead, it will recognize it when you type: yourapi/api/v2/network/Account/userlogin.
These inks can help you:
For areas:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/controllers/areas
For Attribute Routing:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions/attribute-routing-in-web-api-2