MVC3 URL Routing - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am wanting to create a website that dynamically maps routes in the following fashion:
http://domain/MyCategory1
http://domain/
http://domain/MyCategory1/MySubCategory
So far I've added in a new route to Global.asax
routes.MapRoute(
"IFAMainCategory", // Route name
"{IFACategoryName}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "GetSubCategories", IFACategoryName=1} // Parameter defaults
);
But this then messes up the default route that comes as standard.
Is there any way I can control this?

Answer 1

You need to change your routes:
routes.MapRoute("MyCustomRoute", "MyCategory1/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "MyCategory1", action = "MySubCategory", id = UrlParameter.Optional });
// Then the default route
Basically, since you've just made one giant route catcher, all routes match to that one. You need to go specific if you want to map a specific route to a controller.

Answer 2

You need to include MyCategory1 in the route name
routes.MapRoute( "IFAMainCategory",
// Route name "MyCategory1/{IFACategoryName}",
// URL with parameters new { controller = "Home", action = "GetSubCategories", IFACategoryName=1} // Parameter defaults );
Check out this other post for example, and check out Route Debugger
.NET MVC custom routing

Answer 3

Unfortunately I don't think you're going to achieve what you want directly.
You need some way to separate the routes, like placing your "categories" in a folder:
routes.MapRoute(
"IFAMainCategory", // Route name
"categories/{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "GetSubCategories", IFACategoryName=1 }
);
The other option is you could register a route for every parent category before the default route on App Start:
routes.MapRoute(
"IFAMainCategory 1", // Route name
"MyCategory1/{subcategory}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "GetSubCategories", IFACategoryName=1, subcategory = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
routes.MapRoute(
"IFAMainCategory 2", // Route name
"MyCategory2/{subcategory}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Home", action = "GetSubCategories", IFACategoryName=2, subcategory = UrlParameter.Optional }
);