MVC Areas for Large Applications

How Do Areas Organize a Large MVC Application?

Areas divide a large ASP.NET Core MVC application into smaller, independent functional sections.

Examples:

• Admin
• Customer
• Employee
• Support

Folder Structure

Areas
└── Admin
    ├── Controllers
    │   └── DashboardController.cs
    ├── Models
    └── Views
        └── Dashboard
            └── Index.cshtml

Controller

[Area("Admin")]
public class DashboardController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

Area Route in Program.cs

app.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "areas",
    pattern: "{area:exists}/{controller=Dashboard}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

app.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "default",
    pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

The Area route should be registered before the default route.

URL

/Admin/Dashboard/Index

Link to an Area

<a asp-area="Admin"
   asp-controller="Dashboard"
   asp-action="Index">
    Admin Dashboard
</a>

Key Points

• Areas group related controllers, views and models.
• They help organize large applications by feature or module.
• Apply [Area("AreaName")] to Area controllers.
• Create an Area route using {area:exists}.
• Register the Area route before the default route.
• Areas improve maintainability and team development.
• Authentication and authorization can be applied separately to each Area.