creating a custom route to media library

MB 113 posts 422 karma points

Dec 11, 2023 @ 04:46

Creating a Custom Route to Media Library

I have a requirement from a client to externally access items in the media library, using a virtual 'perma-link'.

They know the media-item's name and its library folder-path, but don't know the library index or the current URL for the item - as obviously both may be constantly changing with each revision to the media item, depending on the content editor's updates.

So, the idea is for them to request a 'virtual' perma-link - based on a virtual folder, the item's library folder-path, and the item's name - and have a custom route intercept the request, route to a controller, which then works out the current media-item URL, and rewrites/redirects the request so it resolves to the current version of the requested media item.

e.g. request: .../docs/<item-path>/<item-name> ==> [controller-search-and-redirect] ==> .../media/<index>/<item-file.ext>

However, obviously, the library item-path can be a variable level of folders deep so the request might vary:

eg .../docs/folder-1/some-pdf-document

or .../docs/folder-1/folder-2/folder-3/another-pdf-document

If I can create a custom route for all requests starting with the virtual folder /docs to a custom controller, where I can parse the request, then recursively searching for the folder-path/name of an item is something I've done often enough before. It's not high-performant, but fortunately this is a relatively low volume request.

However, the part I'm a little bit stuck on is how to create a custom route for .../docs/... to a controller that actions it, given that the requesting URL will vary depending on the folder-path location of the item.

Every example I've seen assumes a fixed structure URL with parameterized segments.

Any and all help appreciated.

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Brendan Rice 538 posts 1102 karma points

Dec 11, 2023 @ 13:53

I seen another post recently by Lee Kelleher that used this approach (thanks Lee).

I'd be interested to know if this works for you

using Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.Controllers;

public class DocsController : UmbracoApiController
{
    [HttpGet("docs/{*path}")]
    public IActionResult GetDocument(string path)
    {
        // Put your code here
    }
}

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MB 113 posts 422 karma points

Dec 11, 2023 @ 21:06

Hi, thanks for the response.

I'm not sure if an ApiController would be applicable to this situation. I would have thought an ApiController would be expecting to return either JSON, HTML or similar, not redirect/rewrite to another URL. Would you happen to have the thread reference so I can read the full context and see if it might be useful?

My initial thoughts were to declare and initialize a Custom Route, so that any request that starts with my nominated virtual folder e.g. .../docs/* or whatever I specify - gets routed to a dedicated controller that handles the request.

However, I'm unsure how to set up such a custom route, given the variable request URL.

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Brendan Rice 538 posts 1102 karma points

Dec 11, 2023 @ 21:32

You're right that approach won't work. Try this:

Alter Startup.cs Configure method, under .WidthEndpoints add something like this (u.EndpointRouteBuilder.MapControllerRoute...):

    app.UseUmbraco()
        .WithMiddleware(u =>
        {
            u.UseBackOffice();
            u.UseWebsite();
        })
        .WithEndpoints(u =>
        {
            u.UseInstallerEndpoints();
            u.UseBackOfficeEndpoints();
            u.UseWebsiteEndpoints();
            u.EndpointRouteBuilder.MapControllerRoute("sitemap", "sitemap.xml", new { controller = "Sitemap", action = "Sitemap" });
        });

Add the sitemap controller, which looks like this: { public class SitemapController : UmbracoPageController, IVirtualPageController
```
private readonly IUmbracoContextAccessor _umbracoContextAccessor;
private readonly IPublishedValueFallback _publishedValueFallback;


public SitemapController(ILogger<UmbracoPageController> logger,
```
ICompositeViewEngine compositeViewEngine, IUmbracoContextAccessor umbracoContextAccessor, IPublishedValueFallback publishedValueFallback) : base(logger, compositeViewEngine) { _umbracoContextAccessor = umbracoContextAccessor; _publishedValueFallback = publishedValueFallback; }
```
[HttpGet]
public IActionResult Sitemap()
{
    if (_umbracoContextAccessor.TryGetUmbracoContext(out var umbracoContext))
    {
        IPublishedContent rootNode = umbracoContext.Content.GetAtRoot().FirstOrDefault();
```

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MB 113 posts 422 karma points

Dec 12, 2023 @ 07:52

Thanks again for your time and input, but I don't think that's a solution I can use for this Umbraco-8 application.

I suspect that the requirement is to use this type of construct from the documentation - but the part that confuses me is the {action}/{id} of the path, and what my options for specifying the path are, as I'm basically interested in routing any request for /docs/* to MyDocsController

 RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute("MyDocs", "Docs/{action}/{id}",
            new
            {
                controller = "MyDocsController",
                action = "Index",
                id = UrlParameter.Optional
            });

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MB 113 posts 422 karma points

Dec 20, 2023 @ 05:41

Ok, I got this figured out and working.

The issue had more to do with knowing the specifics of MVC Routing than Umbraco per-se, even though I'm using MapUmbracoRoute

Just required configuring the route to use a WildCard, and the trick there is knowing that syntax - something like:

RouteTable.Routes.MapUmbracoRoute(
    "customRoute1",
    "docs/{*path}",
    new
    {
        controller = "MyDocs",
        action = "Index"
    },
    new MyCustomContentFinder(),
    null,
    new string[] { "My", "Custom", "Controllers" }
);

That will route requests of the form .../docs/* to MyDocsController, with the option of finding Umbraco content to pass as a model. I also used the namespace array argument to configure that for the controller.

namespace My.Custom.Controllers
{
    public class MyDocsController : Umbraco.Web.Mvc.RenderMvcController
    {
        public override ActionResult Index(RenderModel model)
        {
            // do stuff
            return Redirect("somewhere");
        }
    }
}

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Creating a Custom Route to Media Library