returnUrl not passed to LogOn action method in AccountController

Question

I have an MVC application created from the Internet template to use forms authentication, when the user has logged on I want to direct them, say, to the Home|About page.

The LogOn method is that created by the project template, without modification;

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult LogOn(LogOnModel model, string returnUrl)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
           // etc, etc
        }

        return View(model);
    }

I've set the defaultUrl in Web.config as follows;

<authentication mode="Forms">
  <forms loginUrl="~/Account/LogOn" timeout="2880" defaultUrl="~/Home/About"/>
</authentication>

However, when HomeController.LogOn is called the returnUrl parameter is always null. Note the HttpPost attribute on the LogOn method, so the url cannot be passed in the query string.

How can I configure a return url so it gets passed to the LogOn action method and the user is directed to the url's location after log on?

Most probably you forgot to post your reurnUrl string in Logon view ? For this purpose, you may use @Html.HiddenFor() helper as well. — Yusubov

CD Smith CD Smith · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-21T00:12:04

Easiest way is to change the default route in the Global.asax to point to /Home/About instead of /Home/Index

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) {
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
    routes.IgnoreRoute("{*favicon}", new { favicon = @"(.*/)?favicon.ico(/.*)?" });

    routes.MapRoute(
        "Default", // Route name
        "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
        new { controller = "Home", action = "About", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
    );
}

returnUrl not passed to LogOn action method in AccountController

1 Answers