Can I have a controller with the same name as an area? - asp.net-mvc

Question

Let's say I have an area named Admin in my MVC application. This area has a HomeController with an Index action like so:
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace AreasPractice.Areas.Admin.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return Content("Admin.HomeController");
}
}
}
The area registration for the Admin area has the following defaults for the area related route:
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace AreasPractice.Areas.Admin
{
public class AdminAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
public override string AreaName
{
get
{
return "Admin";
}
}
public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
{
context.MapRoute(
"Admin_default",
"Admin/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
//, new[] { "AreasPractice.Areas.Admin.Controllers" }
);
}
}
}
My application's root area also has a HomeController with an Index action and a route config like so:
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace AreasPractice.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return Content("From home controller of the root");
}
}
}
public class RouteConfig
{
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
, namespaces: new[] { "AreasPractice.Controllers" }
);
}
}
Now, I add an AdminController with an Index action in the root area of my application like so:
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace AreasPractice.Controllers
{
public class AdminController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return Content("Root -> Admin Controller -> Index action.");
}
}
}
When I run the application, I am expecting to see something interesting, like, may be an exception to the effect, "I can't figure out what route you want."
But when I run the application, it runs just fine and a request for:
/Admin/
yields to the HomeController in the Admin area.
This is because, apparently, and as I recall, the routing mechanism works on a priority basis. It finds the first match and goes with it.
And it is apparently finding that the Admin_default route satisfies the request pattern even before it applies the Default route.
My question(s):
Is my understanding so far correct?
What do I do to play with it? What if I want it to go to the
AdminController in the root area of the application?

Answer 1

Okay, I got the answer after some more thinking. If I just moved the area registration in the global.asax file to after the default route has been registered, it now goes to the AdminController of my root instead of going to the Admin area's HomeController.
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
// Remove from here
// AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
// Put here after the default route has been
// registered via the RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes
// call above
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
}
}