SXA multiple matching controllers

Question

I am running Commerce SXA (XP 9.0.2 + XC 9.0.3) with two sites next to eachother. One site is non-SXA and the other SXA based. I have a controller with the same name as exists in Commerce SXA: CartController.

In my non-SXA based site I get the following stacktrace for MVC controller resolution:

Exception: System.InvalidOperationException
Message: Multiple types were found that match the controller named 'Cart'. This can happen if the route that services this request ('{*pathInfo}') does not specify namespaces to search for a controller that matches the request. If this is the case, register this route by calling an overload of the 'MapRoute' method that takes a 'namespaces' parameter.

The request for 'Cart' has found the following matching controllers:
Sitecore.Commerce.XA.Feature.Cart.Controllers.CartController
My.Feature.Checkout.Controllers.CartController
Source: System.Web.Mvc
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.GetControllerTypeWithinNamespaces(RouteBase route, String controllerName, HashSet`1 namespaces)
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.GetControllerType(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName)
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.CreateController(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName)
   at Sitecore.Mvc.Controllers.SitecoreControllerFactory.CreateController(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName)

I solved this error by fully qualifying the controller name in the Rendering: My.Feature.Checkout.Controllers.CartController, My.Assembly.

While in my SXA site I get the following stacktrace:

Exception: System.InvalidOperationException
Message: Multiple types were found that match the controller named 'cart'. This can happen if the route that services this request ('api/cxa/{controller}/{action}') does not specify namespaces to search for a controller that matches the request. If this is the case, register this route by calling an overload of the 'MapRoute' method that takes a 'namespaces' parameter.

The request for 'cart' has found the following matching controllers:
Sitecore.Commerce.XA.Feature.Cart.Controllers.CartController
My.Feature.Checkout.Controllers.CartController
Source: System.Web.Mvc
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.GetControllerTypeWithinNamespaces(RouteBase route, String controllerName, HashSet`1 namespaces)
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.GetControllerType(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName)
   at System.Web.Mvc.DefaultControllerFactory.System.Web.Mvc.IControllerFactory.GetControllerSessionBehavior(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName)
   at System.Web.Mvc.MvcRouteHandler.GetSessionStateBehavior(RequestContext requestContext)
   at System.Web.Mvc.MvcRouteHandler.GetHttpHandler(RequestContext requestContext)
   at Sitecore.Mvc.Routing.RouteHandlerWrapper.GetHttpHandler(RequestContext requestContext)
   at System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule.PostResolveRequestCache(HttpContextBase context)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStepImpl(IExecutionStep step)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

The second shows a different stacktrace, and fully qualifying (which does SXA by default) does not help.

Why is there a different stacktrace for non-SXA and SXA?

Is there another solution than using MVC areas for this?

Answer 1

I'm afraid you'll have to use area's.. Or rename your controllers. To make it less rework, you could plugin a processor that scans assemblies and creates areas on startup. Only thing left to do is to add the area name to your renderings. I've tested this with the code below:

public class HelixAreaInitializationProcessor
{
    public virtual void Process(PipelineArgs args)
    {
        AddHelixAreas("*.Feature.*", "*.Foundation.*", "*.Project.*");
    }

    private void AddHelixAreas(params string[] assemblyFilters)
    {
        var assemblies = GetAssemblies(assemblyFilters);
        foreach (var assembly in assemblies)
        {
            var area = new HelixAreaRegistration(assembly);
            area.Register();
        }
    }

    private static Assembly[] GetAssemblies(IEnumerable<string> assemblyFilters)
    {
        var assemblies = new List<Assembly>();
        foreach (var assemblyFilter in assemblyFilters)
        {
            assemblies.AddRange(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().Where(assembly => IsWildcardMatch(assembly.GetName().Name, assemblyFilter)).ToArray());
        }
        return assemblies.ToArray();
    }

    private static bool IsWildcardMatch(string input, string wildcard)
    {
        return input == wildcard || Regex.IsMatch(input, "^" + Regex.Escape(wildcard).Replace("\\*", ".*").Replace("\\?", ".") + "$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
    }
}

class HelixAreaRegistration : AreaRegistration
{
    private readonly string _name;
    private readonly string[] _namespaces;

    public HelixAreaRegistration(Assembly assembly)
    {
        _name = assembly.GetName().Name;
        _namespaces = assembly.ExportedTypes
            .Where(x => typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(x))
            .Select(x => x.Namespace)
            .Distinct()
            .ToArray();
    }

    public override string AreaName => _name;

    public override void RegisterArea(AreaRegistrationContext context)
    {
        context.MapRoute(
            AreaName,
            $"{AreaName}/{{controller}}/{{action}}/{{id}}",
            new { action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
            _namespaces
        );
    }

    public void Register()
    {
        RegisterArea(new AreaRegistrationContext(AreaName, RouteTable.Routes));
    }
}

Answer 2

Based on above code, I managed to solve it by adding proper (Commerce SXA only) namespaces to the MapRoute calls in the Sitecore.Commerce.XA.Foundation.Common.Pipelines.Initialize.RegisterControllerRoutes processor:

protected virtual void Register()
{
     var namespaces = GetNamespaces("Sitecore.Commerce.XA.Feature.*", "Sitecore.Commerce.XA.Foundation.*");

     RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
         name: "ApiRoutes", 
         url: "{virtualFolder}/api/cxa/{controller}/{action}", 
         namespaces: namespaces);

     RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
         name: "RootApiRoutes",
         url: "api/cxa/{controller}/{action}",
         namespaces: namespaces);
}