RouteData

RouteData is a fundamental concept in many web frameworks, particularly those based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern. It represents the information that a web framework extracts from an incoming URL to determine which code should handle the request. This information typically includes the controller name, the action method within that controller, and any parameters that are part of the URL.

When a request arrives at a web application, the routing engine parses the URL. RouteData acts as a container for the results of this parsing. For instance, in a URL like "/products/details/123", the RouteData might store "products" as the controller, "details" as the action, and "123" as a parameter. This extracted data is then used by the framework to dispatch the request to the appropriate handler.

The structure of RouteData can vary between frameworks. However, it generally includes properties or collections to hold route values, which are the key-value pairs extracted from the URL. These values can be used to dynamically select controllers, actions, and pass data to the executed code. This mechanism allows for flexible URL structures that are user-friendly and SEO-optimized, without being tightly coupled to the physical file structure of the application. RouteData plays a crucial role in the request processing pipeline, enabling sophisticated routing logic.