title: ASP.NET MVC `Html.ActionLink` between "Areas"
body: <p>I have added a new Area to my MVC3 project and I am trying to link from the _Layout page to the new Area. I have added an Area called 'Admin' that has a controller 'Meets'.</p>
  
  <p>I used the visual studio designer to add the area so it has the correct area registration class etc, and the global.asax file is registering all areas.</p>
  
  <p>However, when I use the following 2 action links in a page in the root, I run into a few problems:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.ActionLink("Admin", "Index", "Meets", new { area = "Admin" }, null)
  @Html.ActionLink("Admin", "Index", "Meets", new { area = "" }, null)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When clicking both links, I am taken to the Meets controller in the Admin area, where the application then proceeds to throw an error saying it cannot find the Index page (even though the Index page is present in the Views folder in the Area sub-directory.</p>
  
  <p>The href for the 1st link looks like this:</p>
  
  <p><code>http://localhost/BCC/Meets?area=Admin</code></p>
  
  <p>And the href for the 2nd link looks like this:</p>
  
  <p><code>http://localhost/BCC/Meets</code></p>
  
  <p>Also if I hit the link that I expect to be created:</p>
  
  <p><code>http://localhost/BCC/Admin/Meets</code></p>
  
  <p>I just get a resource cannot be found error.  All very perplexing!  I hope someone can help...</p>