The controller for path was not found or does not implement IController

Question

I have an MVC4 project with language selection:

• en
• nl
• fr
• de

1 main part with:

• About
• Common (fo

Answer 1

I've found it.

When a page, that is located inside an area, wants to access a controller that is located outside of this area (such as a shared layout page or a certain page inside a different area), the area of this controller needs to be added. Since the common controller is not in a specific area but part of the main project, you have to leave area empty:

@Html.Action("MenuItems", "Common", new {area="" }) 

The above needs to be added to all of the actions and actionlinks since the layout page is shared throughout the various areas.

It's exactly the same problem as here: ASP.NET MVC Areas with shared layout

Edit: To be clear, this is marked as the answer because it was the answer for my problem. The above answers might solve the causes that trigger the same error.