Can I specify a custom location to “search for views” in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

I have the following layout for my mvc project:

• /Controllers
  • /Demo
  • /Demo/DemoArea1Controller
  • /Demo/DemoArea2Controller
  • etc

Answer 1

Now in MVC 6 you can implement IViewLocationExpander interface without messing around with view engines:

public class MyViewLocationExpander : IViewLocationExpander
{
    public void PopulateValues(ViewLocationExpanderContext context) {}

    public IEnumerable ExpandViewLocations(ViewLocationExpanderContext context, IEnumerable viewLocations)
    {
        return new[]
        {
            "/AnotherPath/Views/{1}/{0}.cshtml",
            "/AnotherPath/Views/Shared/{0}.cshtml"
        }; // add `.Union(viewLocations)` to add default locations
    }
}

where {0} is target view name, {1} - controller name and {2} - area name.

You can return your own list of locations, merge it with default viewLocations (.Union(viewLocations)) or just change them (viewLocations.Select(path => "/AnotherPath" + path)).

To register your custom view location expander in MVC, add next lines to ConfigureServices method in Startup.cs file:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.Configure(options =>
    {
        options.ViewLocationExpanders.Add(new MyViewLocationExpander());
    });
}