Configuring ASP.NET MVC Attribute Routing for multi language site

Question

I'm creating a MVC5 web site that should support multiple languages. The structure of the app is complex so I'm using Attribute Routing only. RouteConfig.cs is very simple:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

    routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();
}

I want to keep language information in URL by adding language identifier after site name. For English, which is default language, URL should remain "clean". Here are an example:

http://test.com/foo/1/bar/2
http://test.com/de/foo/1/bar/2

My first attempt was to use two RoutePrefix attributes for each controller:

[RoutePrefix("foo")]
[RoutePrefix("{lang}/foo")]

But MVC doesn't allow to use more than one RoutePrefix attribute for a controller.

So now I'm not using RoutePrefix attributes at all, and specify full route for each controller action:

[Route("foo/{a}/bar/{b}")]
[Route("{lang}/foo/{a}/bar/{b}")]

Is there any better way to handle lang route? Ideally I would like to specify in one place only, not for every controller.

PS. I'm setting current thread culture by parsing language route in custom filter.

Have a look at this answer. For attribute routing, read the comments. — NightOwl888
– NightOwl888, Commented Mar 7, 2016 at 11:39
So your suggestion is just to add two routes for each action? Or I missed something? — Aleksandr Ivanov
– Aleksandr Ivanov, Commented Mar 7, 2016 at 20:17
You could 1) add 2 routes per action 2) use conventional routing or 3) analyze the source for MapMvcAttributeRoutes and make a similar method that registers a localized route for each Route attribute (be sure to call your custom method before MapMvcAttributeRoutes to put the routes into the RouteTable in the right order). — NightOwl888
– NightOwl888, Commented Mar 7, 2016 at 20:45
I updated my other answer with an example of the 3rd option. — NightOwl888
– NightOwl888, Commented Mar 7, 2016 at 21:41
Have you tried to execute your code for attribute routing? When method MapMvcAttributeRoutes() is called to create a copy of routes, then first route is of type RouteCollectionRoute which can't be casted to Route. And even if I ignore that, these added localized routes are not working. — Aleksandr Ivanov
– Aleksandr Ivanov, Commented Mar 9, 2016 at 21:54

dionoid · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-12 10:51:57Z

2

I found the easiest solution (at least for ASP.NET MVC 5.2) is to use a default value for the optional parameter.

For example, if English is your default language, you can use a single attribute on the Controller:

[RoutePrefix("{lang=en}/foo")]

or a single attribute on the Action:

[Route("{lang=en}/foo/bar")]

Note that optional URI parameters (e.g. {lang?}) don't work if they are at the start of the URL.

answered Apr 12, 2016 at 10:51

dionoid

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Nkosi · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-05 22:41:22Z

0

If all else fails then I suggest you keep your default routes as is and store the language in a query parameter

For English, your default language, URL will remain "clean" as you intended.

http://test.com/foo/1/bar/2

But for other languages you include lang as query parameter

http://test.com/foo/1/bar/2?lang=De-DE

Then in your custom filter, check if the query parameter is present. If it is then change culture to match. Otherwise use default language.

Also: You should use 5 character encoding and not 2 char globalization ISO code. De-DE and not DE or fr-FR and not FR

edited Mar 5, 2016 at 22:41

answered Mar 5, 2016 at 22:34

Nkosi

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1 Comment

Aleksandr Ivanov Over a year ago

I was thinking about this approach, but I would like to keep URL as clean as possible.

Darkseal · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-18 14:50:11Z

You basically need three things:

A multi-language aware route to handle incoming URLs (if you're using MVC5 or above you could also go for Attribute-based routing instead, but I still prefer to use a global rule to handle this).
A LocalizationAttribute to handle these kinds of multi-language requests.
An helper method to generate these URLs within your application (Html.ActionLink and/or Url.Action extension methods).

See this answer for further details and code samples.

(both are written in C# - affiliation disclaimer: I made those samples)

For additional info and further samples you can also read this blog post I wrote on this topic.

http://www.ryadel.com/en/html-actionlink-extension-method-written-c-handle-multi-language-routes-asp-net-mvc/

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