Umbraco 7 Update Umbraco Routes

Question

I am trying to create an Umbraco 7 MVC application. In doing so, I want to be able to create custom controllers that manage data behind the scenes. Through my research, I found using the SurfaceController was the most successful. However, the route adds "/umbraco/surface/" to the page. For example, my Test Controller and View would look like "/umbraco/surface/Test". Is there a way to manage these routes and have it simply go to "/Test" without adding the Umbraco route to it? Any guidance on how to create custom controllers within Umbraco 7 would be helpful!

Answer 1

this is what I have achieved in my project. Digging inet I found the solution:

1. In App_Code folder I created file Startup.cs with a routes:

   using System.Web.Mvc;
   using System.Web.Routing;
   using Umbraco.Core;
   
   namespace mebli
   {
       public class MyStartupHandler : IApplicationEventHandler
       {
           public void OnApplicationStarted(UmbracoApplicationBase umbracoApplication, ApplicationContext applicationContext)
           {
               //Create a custom routes
   
               // News controller
               RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
                   "",
                   "News",
                   new
                   {
                       controller = "News",
                       action = "Index",
                       id = "0"
                   });
   
               RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
                   "",
                   "News/Index",
                   new
                   {
                       controller = "News",
                       action = "Index",
                       id = "0"
                   });
   
               RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
                   "",
                   "News/{id}",
                   new
                   {
                       controller = "News",
                       action = "Index",
                       id = UrlParameter.Optional
                   });
           }
   
           public void OnApplicationInitialized(
               UmbracoApplicationBase umbracoApplication,
               ApplicationContext applicationContext)
           {
           }
   
           public void OnApplicationStarting(
               UmbracoApplicationBase umbracoApplication,
               ApplicationContext applicationContext)
           {
           }
       }
   }
   

   This allows you to have routes like you want, in my case site.com/News, site.com/News/Index for index, site.com/News/123 for individual news.

2. Then my NewsController is like this:

   using System.Globalization;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Web;
   using System.Web.Mvc;
   using Examine;
   using Umbraco.Core.Models;
   using Umbraco.Web;
   using Umbraco.Web.Models;
   using Umbraco.Web.Mvc;
   
   namespace mebli.Controllers
   {
       public class NewsController : PluginController
       {
           public NewsController()
               : this(UmbracoContext.Current)
           {
           }
   
           public NewsController(UmbracoContext umbracoContext)
               : base(umbracoContext)
           {
           }
   
           public ActionResult Index(string id)
           {
               var criteria = ExamineManager.Instance.DefaultSearchProvider.CreateSearchCriteria("content");
               var filterNews = id == "0" ? criteria.NodeTypeAlias("News") : criteria.NodeTypeAlias("News").And().NodeName(id);
               var resultNews = Umbraco.TypedSearch(filterNews.Compile()).ToArray();
               if (!resultNews.Any())
               {
                   throw new HttpException(404, "No product");
               }
   
               if (id == "0")
               {
                   criteria = ExamineManager.Instance.DefaultSearchProvider.CreateSearchCriteria("content");
                   var filterNewsRepository = criteria.NodeTypeAlias("NewsRepository");
                   var newsRepository = Umbraco.TypedSearch(filterNewsRepository.Compile());
                   var renderModel = CreateRenderModel(newsRepository.First());
                   return View("NewsIndex", renderModel);
               }
               else
               {
                   var renderModel = CreateRenderModel(resultNews.First());
                   return View("News", renderModel);
               }
           }
   
           private RenderModel CreateRenderModel(IPublishedContent content)
           {
               var model = new RenderModel(content, CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture);
   
               //add an umbraco data token so the umbraco view engine executes
               RouteData.DataTokens["umbraco"] = model;
   
               return model;
           }
   
       }
   }
   

   It is inherited from Umbraco's PluginController, don't ask why :)

3. And thirdly I have two views being called from the controller - NewsIndex for the index and News for individual news. For example, my NewsIndex.cshtml is here:

   @inherits Umbraco.Web.Mvc.UmbracoTemplatePage
   @{
       Layout = "~/Views/Page.cshtml";
   }
   
   <div id="main-content" class="body news narrow">
       <h2>@Model.Content.GetPropertyValue("header")</h2>
       <ul>
           @foreach (IPublishedContent news in Model.Content.Children.OrderBy("date desc"))
           {
               <li>
                   <span>@Helpers.FormatDate(news.GetPropertyValue("date"))</span>
                   <div>
                       <a href="@Url.Action("Index", "News", new { id = news.Name })">@Helpers.StripHtml(news.GetPropertyValue("Brief").ToString())</a>
                   </div>
               </li>
           }
       </ul>
       <div class="clr"></div>
   </div>
   

Actually I can't explain every line in this code because have started learning ASP.Net MVC and Umbraco not long ago. But the idea is clear I think. And it works :)