I do not know why the browser is giving me 404 error

Question

I have created A cart controller and index view. When I access localhost/cart, I got 404 error. I do not know why it is showing 404. I have the same issue for product controller as well. I am getting 404 when accessing index page. In the product controller, I have added another method called ProductByCategory and related cshtml page. I can access to it.

I have created CartController as below.

namespace Ricebuddy.Controllers
{
    public class CartController : Controller
    {
        private readonly RicebuddyContext context;

        public CartController(RicebuddyContext context)
        {
            this.context = context;
        }

        // GET /cart
        public IActionResult Index()
        {
            List<CartItem> cart = HttpContext.Session.GetJson<List<CartItem>>("Cart") ?? new List<CartItem>();

            CartViewModel cartVM = new CartViewModel
            {
                CartItems = cart,
                GrandTotal = cart.Sum(x => x.Price * x.Quantity)
            };

            return View(cartVM);
        }

In my Views>Cart>Index.cshtml, I have following codes.

@model Ricebuddy.Models.CartViewModel

@{
    ViewData["Title"] = "Index";
}

<h1>Index</h1>

@if (Model.CartItems.Count > 0)
{


    <div>
        <h4>CartViewModel</h4>
        <hr />
        <dl class="row">
            <dt class="col-sm-2">
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.GrandTotal)
            </dt>
            <dd class="col-sm-10">
                @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.GrandTotal)
            </dd>
        </dl>
    </div>
    <div>
        @Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit", new { /* id = Model.PrimaryKey */ }) |
        <a asp-action="Index">Back to List</a>
    </div>
}
else
            {
                <h3 class="display-4 text-center">Your cart is empty.</h3>
            }

My Startup.cs got the following routes.

 app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
            {
                endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
                    "pages",
                    "{slug?}",
                    defaults: new { controller = "Pages", action = "Page" }
                );

                endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
                    "products",
                    "products/{categorySlug}",
                    defaults: new { controller = "Products", action = "ProductsByCategory" }
                );

                endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
                    name: "areas",
                    pattern: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
                );

                endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
                    name: "default",
                    pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
            });

Answer 1

That's being picked up by your "pages" route? Like how could it know that it's meant to hit "default" instead of "pages" ?

as mentioned in the comment.

So I moved pages endpoint to below default endpoints. It works and not giving me 404 when I am accessing index for both cart and product controllers.

app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
        "products",
        "products/{categorySlug}",
        defaults: new { controller = "Products", action = "ProductsByCategory" }
    );

    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
        name: "areas",
        pattern: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"
    );

    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
        name: "default",
        pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
       "pages",
       "{slug?}",
       defaults: new { controller = "Pages", action = "Page" }
   );
});