Tutorials ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial
Areas — Complete Guide
Areas — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.
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ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial · Lesson 64 of 200
Areas
Getting Started ✓ → Core MVC ✓ → Data & Security ✓ → Production → Career
Advanced · 6 — Advanced MVC · ~10 min · Section 6: Routing
What is this?
Areas split a large MVC app into modules — like /Admin for store management and / for the public storefront. Each area has its own Controllers and Views folders.
Why should you care?
ShopNest needs a customer site and an admin panel. Areas keep admin code separate so URLs and permissions are clear.
See it live — copy this example
Create an MVC project (dotnet new mvc), add the code, and run dotnet run.
// Areas/Admin/Controllers/DashboardController.cs
[Area("Admin")]
public class DashboardController : Controller
{
public IActionResult Index() => View();
}
// Program.cs — areas use same MapControllerRoute with {area:exists}
Run Example »
Edit the code and click Run — like W3Schools Try it Yourself.
What happened?
- The [Area("Admin")] attribute tags controllers.
- Views live under Areas/Admin/Views/.
- URL becomes /Admin/Dashboard/Index.
Try it yourself
- Scaffold an Admin area (dotnet add package or VS scaffold).
- Add DashboardController in Areas/Admin.
- Create Index view and browse /Admin/Dashboard.
- Change text or labels in the example and run again — watch the browser update.
- Break the code on purpose (remove a semicolon), read the error message, then fix it.
Remember
Areas = mini MVC apps inside one project. Common split: public site vs Admin. Each area has Controllers/ and Views/.