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

There's actually a lot easier method than hardcoding the paths into your constructor. Below is an example of extending the Razor engine to add new paths. One thing I'm not entirely sure about is whether the paths you add here will be cached:

public class ExtendedRazorViewEngine : RazorViewEngine
{
    public void AddViewLocationFormat(string paths)
    {
        List existingPaths = new List(ViewLocationFormats);
        existingPaths.Add(paths);

        ViewLocationFormats = existingPaths.ToArray();
    }

    public void AddPartialViewLocationFormat(string paths)
    {
        List existingPaths = new List(PartialViewLocationFormats);
        existingPaths.Add(paths);

        PartialViewLocationFormats = existingPaths.ToArray();
    }
}

And your Global.asax.cs

protected void Application_Start()
{
    ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();

    ExtendedRazorViewEngine engine = new ExtendedRazorViewEngine();
    engine.AddViewLocationFormat("~/MyThemes/{1}/{0}.cshtml");
    engine.AddViewLocationFormat("~/MyThemes/{1}/{0}.vbhtml");

    // Add a shared location too, as the lines above are controller specific
    engine.AddPartialViewLocationFormat("~/MyThemes/{0}.cshtml");
    engine.AddPartialViewLocationFormat("~/MyThemes/{0}.vbhtml");

    ViewEngines.Engines.Add(engine);

    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
    RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}

One thing to note: your custom location will need the ViewStart.cshtml file in its root.