Area routing breaks in MVC6 - asp.net-core

Question

In previous versions of ASP.NET, and using MVC 5, I could set up a route like this in my AreaRegistraion:
context.MapRoute(
"pfrecent",
"Forums/Recent/{page}",
new { controller = ForumController.Name, action = "Recent", page = 1 },
new[] { "PopForums.Controllers" });
This would route /Forums/Recent to the forum controller and its recent action. However, I can't figure out how to make it work in ASP.Net 5/MVC 6. I've added [Area("Forums")] to the controller class, and used this route from the Startup class:
routes.MapRoute(
"pfrecent",
"Forums/Recent/{page}",
new { controller = ForumController.Name, action = "Recent", page = 1 });
routes.MapRoute(
name: "areaRoute",
template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
However, it resolves to /Forums/Forum/Recent?page=1. The intention is to continue using /Forums/Recent.

Answer 1

We are using this for enabling areas in MVC 6:
// Configure MVC routing
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
// Areas support
routes.MapRoute(
name: "areaRoute",
template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
// Default routing
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});
The first route is for areas, second is for main content.

Answer 2

On Startup.cs
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Business",
template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
})
on Controller
[Area("Business")]
public class DemoController : Controller
{
public IActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
}

Answer 3

Place this in your Startup.cs file at the TOP of the routes list:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "forumsAreaRoute",
template: "Forums/{action}/{page?}",
defaults: new {area = "Forums", controller = "Forum", action = "Recent", page = 1});
Your Forum controller should look like this:
[Area("Forums")]
public class ForumController : Controller
{
// GET: /<controller>/
public IActionResult Recent(int? page)
{
// Do action stuff here
}
}
This solution will satisfy a url of http://somedomain.com/Forums/Recent/1 and return the first page.

Answer 4

I hate answering my own questions, but after getting back to this, and looking at source and experimenting, I found that you have to specify the area in the route mapping, as well as the HtmlHelpers (I'm assuming this will be true for tag helpers as well, but I haven't gone that far yet in conversion.) So the route mapping has to look like this:
routes.MapRoute(
"pfrecent",
"Forums/Recent/{page?}",
new { controller = ForumController.Name, action = "Recent", page = 1, Area = "Forums" }
);
The important part is the Area property in the route value object. The HtmlHelper has to look like this, also naming the Area:
#Html.ActionLink(PopForums.Resources.Recent, "Recent", ForumController.Name, new { page = 1, Area = "Forums" }, null)
It causes the URL for the recent page to be /Forums/Recent as expected. As best I can tell, setting routes in a derived AreaRegistration class in MVC5 set the area value on the routes for you. Having [Area("Forums")] on your controller class (which I already had) seems to assume the previous role of area registration.