asp.net - Context menu to Add Controller/View missing

Question

I have integrated ASP.NET MVC 4 into existing asp.net web site. Both works fine but I don't see any menu/shortcuts to create controller/view within visual studio IDE. Are those only available to ASP.NET MVC template?

Answer 1

Are those only available to ASP.NET MVC template?

Yes, but you could cheat. The way Visual Studio shows those shortcuts is by looking at the project type and if it sees that it is an ASP.NET MVC project it will make them available. But how does it know it is an ASP.NET MVC project? After all ASP.NET MVC is an ASP.NET project.

Open the .csproj file and look for the <ProjectTypeGuids> node of your ASP.NET MVC 4 project. You will see something like this:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47};{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Now open the .csproj file of your regular ASP.NET project and simply add the {E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47} GUID as first item in the list (if you don't project does not even load). That's all. Now you will see the ASP.NET MVC specific context menus in your WebForms project.