ASP.Net MVC 2 Area, SubArea and Routes - asp.net

Question

I have been looking around for a solution for my problem. Found alot of similar issues, but none of them led to a solution for me.
I am trying to register an Area within an Area. This works however it "partially" screws up my routing.
My route registrations in the order they are registered, consider the FooBar and Foo registrations to be coming from AreaRegistrations
routes.MapRoute("FooBar_default",
"Foo/Bar/{controller}/{action}",
new { area = "Foo/Bar", controller = "Home", action = "Index"},
new[] { BarHomeControllerType.Namespace }
);
routes.MapRoute("Foo_default",
"Foo/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { area = "Foo", controller = "Start", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new { controller = new NotSubArea()},
new[] { typeof(StartController).Namespace }
);
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute("PagesRoute", "Pages/{action}", new { controller = "Pages", Action "Index" }).DataTokens["UseNamespaceFallback"] = false;
routes.MapRoute("Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
new[] { typeof(HomeController).Namespace }
).DataTokens["UseNamespaceFallback"] = false;
Now the following problem occurs. When going to Website/Foo/ or Website/Foo/Bar links in those pages are generated correctly using:
!{Html.ActionLink<HomeController>(c => c.Index(),"Home", new { area = "Foo/Bar"})}
or
!{ Url.Action("Index", "Home", new { area = "Foo/Bar"}) } //or a different area
However when i use this in my main pages, in other words Website/ or Website/Home etc..
!{Html.ActionLink<HomeController>(c => c.Index(),"Home", new { area = ""})}
or
!{ Url.Action("Index", "Home", new { area = ""}) }
//or with no area identifier specified
It generates the Url: Website/Foo/Bar/Home etc... Which ofcourse is wrong.
When i remove the Area registration for Foo/Bar it all works again. Going to the urls Website/Home/About or Website/Home directly does display the right pages, so im guessing somehow the internal UrlHelper is picking the wrong routes to render.
I tried switching the order of the FooBar_default and Foo_Default routes, so that the Foo_default route is registered before the FooBar_default route, but then the area does not work anymore (resource not found) and the links are still generated incorrectly.
What i find most odd is that removing the Foo/Bar registration solves the problem. I was hoping someone could shed some insight on this matter..

Answer 1

What you need to understand that an Area is just a routing concept which Microsoft have neatly wrapped up the concept or UrlRouting to get people started.
You can actually get the MVC framework to route your request however you like according to your requirements.
What you might need to look at doing, is writing your own RouteHandler. This will enable you to correctly direct how the MVC framework routes any request accoring to your requirements.
See this answer to asp.net mvc complex routing for tree path as an example to get you started.
chris166 outlines that my implementing your own IRouteHandler, and mapping your route to use that instead should get you what you need. Its a bit more effort than using out the box solution of areas, but should get you better results.
routes.MapRoute(
"Tree",
"Tree/{*path}",
new { controller = "Tree", action = "Index" })
.RouteHandler = new TreeRouteHandler();