asp.net mvc multilanguage urls/routing

Question

This is a two part question regarding asp.net mvc multilanguage urls/routing and SEO best practices/benefits…

Question Part 1)

I’m being ask

Answer 1

you can create base controller that have the localization logic as below:

 public abstract class LocalizedController : Controller
 {
     protected override void ExecuteCore()
     {
         HttpCookie cookie;
         string lang = GetCurrentCulture();
         Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(lang, false);

         // set the lang value into route data
         RouteData.Values["lang"] = lang;

         // save the location into cookie
         cookie = new HttpCookie("DPClick.CurrentUICulture",
             Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.TwoLetterISOLanguageName)
             {
                 Expires = DateTime.Now.AddYears(1)
             };

         HttpContext.Response.SetCookie(cookie);  
         base.ExecuteCore();
     }

     private  string  GetCurrentCulture()
     {
         string lang;

         // set the culture from the route data (url)

         if (RouteData.Values["lang"] != null &&
            !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(RouteData.Values["lang"].ToString()))
         {
             lang = RouteData.Values["lang"].ToString();
             if (Localization.Locales.TryGetValue(lang, out lang))
             {
                 return lang;
             }
         }
         // load the culture info from the cookie
         HttpCookie cookie = HttpContext.Request.Cookies["DPClick.CurrentUICulture"];
         if (cookie != null)
         {
             // set the culture by the cookie content
             lang = cookie.Value;
             if (Localization.Locales.TryGetValue(lang, out lang))
             {
                 return lang;
             }

         }
         // set the culture by the location if not speicified
         lang = HttpContext.Request.UserLanguages[0];
         if (Localization.Locales.TryGetValue(lang, out lang))
         {
             return lang;
         }
         //English is default
         return Localization.Locales.FirstOrDefault().Value;

     }

 }

The above controller satisfy fashion 2 of your question if you want to ignore the culture folder just don't assign the lang in the RouteDate. offcourse to achieve fashion 2 you have to add routing for culture as below:

            routes.MapRoute(
            "Localization", // Route name
            "{lang}/{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
            new {controller = "Default", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional}, // Parameter defaults
            new {lang = @"\w{2,3}(-\w{4})?(-\w{2,3})?"}
            );