How to implement custom route in ASP.NET MVC containing dot? - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

Instead of the conventional MVC route of
{controller}/{action}/{id}
I need my system to handle requests like this
{controller}/{action}.{id}
e.g.
http://localhost:50691/epws/openWebViewer.x551
I have no control over the system calling me
I modified my routeconfig as such
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 }
);
}
}
with the following controller
public class epwsController : Controller
{
public ActionResult openWebViewer(string id)
{
return View(id);
}
}
but the URL above just returns a 404

Answer 1

You could do something like below, remove action parameter from url with route attributes. Then extend id parameter, so string "openWebViewer.x551" gets inside of the action as a whole and do some inner routing inside controller. Finally add web.config setting to add trailing slash to URL so it does not get handled by static file handler
Controller
using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace WebApplication8.Controllers
{
[RoutePrefix("epws")]
public class EpwsController : Controller
{
[Route("{id}")]
public ActionResult Index(string id)
{
var parameters = id.Split('.');
switch (parameters[0])
{
case "openWebViewer":
return openWebViewer(parameters[1]);
default:
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
public ActionResult openWebViewer(string id)
{
return View(id);
}
}
}
RouteConfig.cs
public class RouteConfig
{
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
}
Web.config
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="Add trailing slash for some URLs" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^(.*(\.).+[^\/])$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
I believe static files will be broken with this web.config, but you could adjust regex to match only specific parameter names, e.g. openWebViewer