Routes are URL patterns that are used for processing requests and that can be used to construct URLs dynamically. The Routes property is a static property (Shared in Visual Basic) that contains all the routes in an application that are used to specify how a URL request is matched to a class that handles the request. To specify a route, you add the route definition to the Routes property. Typically, you add routes to the Routes property from an event handler for the Application_Start event in the Global.asax file.

When an ASP.NET application handles a request, the application iterates through the collection of routes in the Routes property to find the route that matches the format of the URL request. The order of the routes that you add to the Routes property is significant, because the application uses the first route that it finds in the collection that matches the URL.

The following example shows how to add a Route object to the Routes property.

Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes)
End Sub

Shared Sub RegisterRoutes(ByVal routes As RouteCollection)
    Dim urlPattern As String
    Dim categoryRoute As Route

    urlPattern = "Category/{action}/{categoryName}"

    categoryRoute = New Route(urlPattern, New CategoryRouteHandler)

    routes.Add(categoryRoute)
End Sub

void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{
    RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
    routes.Add(new Route
    (
         "Category/{action}/{categoryName}"
         , new CategoryRouteHandler()
    ));
}

.NET Framework

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

Other Resources