Areas and Modules

Areas

An area groups related screens: their controllers, their views and their routes. Put the files under Areas/{Area}:

MyApp/
├── Controllers/HomeController.cs
├── Views/
│   ├── Home/IndexView.cvw
│   └── Shared/_Layout.cvw                   (used by area views too)
└── Areas/
    └── Admin/
        ├── Controllers/UsersController.cs   (namespace MyApp.Areas.Admin.Controllers)
        └── Views/Users/IndexView.cvw

A controller whose namespace contains .Areas.{Area}. is in that area. Anywhere else, put it in one with an attribute:

[Area("Admin")]
public class UsersController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index() => View();       // Areas/Admin/Views/Users/IndexView.cvw
}

Routes

An area's routes start with the area:

<option key="a" nav="Admin/Users/Index">Users</option>

return RedirectToAction("Index", "Admin/Users");
return NavigationResult.To("Admin/Users/Details?id=4");

Inside an area, a controller named without an area means the area's own controller when it has one, and the application's otherwise. So from a screen in the Admin area, nav="Home/Index" goes to Admin/Home if the area has a Home controller, and to the application's Home if not. Two areas can each have a HomeController.

RouteContext.Area is the area of a route (null outside one), and RouteContext.ControllerName is the controller without it. Breadcrumbs show the controller's name without the area.

Views and partials

• Views go in Areas/{Area}/Views/{Controller}; the build checks area routes in nav, RedirectToAction and NavigationResult like any other (CVW119 to CVW121), and the Create view fix creates area views in the right folder.
• Partials and layouts live in the project's Views/Shared and are shared by every area.

Modules

A module is a class library with its own controllers, views and services, added to an application:

// In the library (it references ConsoleMVC.Framework, so its .cvw views are compiled there)
public sealed class BillingModule : IMvcModule
{
    public void Configure(MvcApplicationBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.Services.AddSingleton<IInvoiceStore, InvoiceStore>();
    }
}

// In the application's Program.cs
builder.AddModule<BillingModule>();

• The module's controllers and views are discovered with the application's (and again after a hot reload).
• Configure runs once, when the module is added; adding a module twice does nothing.
• builder.AddModule(assembly) adds a library that has no module class.
• Put a module's controllers in an area named after it ([Area("Billing")]), so its routes cannot collide with the application's. A module can have its own Views/Shared partials for its views.