ASPNET MVC Routing issue - asp.net-mvc

Question

I need to add a http://mysite/categoryname route, so i added
routes.MapRoute(
"Categories",
"{CategoryName}",
new { controller = "News", action = "Category", CategoryName = "" },
new string[] { "MyProj.Controllers" }
);
The problem is that if i add it before
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "News", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new string[] { "MyProj.Controllers" }
);
Home page goes in error because it enters in Categories route; if i add Categories route in last position it is never entered and http://mysite/category_name gives me 404.
What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

You have a few options here:
Change your news category route to include a hard path:
routes.MapRoute(
"Categories",
"category/{CategoryName}",
new { controller = "News", action = "Category", CategoryName = "" },
new string[] { "MyProj.Controllers" }
);
Change your default route to include a hard path:
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"site/{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "News", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new string[] { "MyProj.Controllers" }
);
Roll your own custom routing class
See http://hanssens.org/post/ASPNET-MVC-Subdomain-Routing.aspx for an unrelated example.

Answer 2

No matter how you do this, as you add Categories, you will obviously run the risk of stepping on other pages in the site - so for example if you have a section of your site named /account and then someone creates a category named, "account," what's supposed to happen?
That said, there is a simpler answer than writing your own Routing class. You can use a Regex in the Category Route, and make it the first rule. For example, if the only 2 categories on the site were jackets and sweaters:
routes.MapRoute(
"Categories",
"{CategoryName}",
new { controller = "News", action = "Category" },
new { CategoryName = "(jackets|sweaters)" }
);
The final argument is a RouteConstraint based in Regex, and so the route will defer to routes included after it if the path is neither /jackets or /sweaters.
Obviously you want to be more robust than that, so you can create a method that builds the Regex at app startup:
routes.MapRoute(
"Categories",
"{CategoryName}",
new { controller = "News", action = "Category" },
new { CategoryName = "(" + String.Join("|", categories) + ")" }
);
categories here would need to be something you provide - some array or database feed of the category names in your app.