mvc controller default action

Question

Say I have a controller with multiple actions, is there an override to make the controller return a default action if a condition is met?

Example:

I have a checkoutcontroller and I want each action to return HttpNotFound() if e-commerce is disabled on the site, is there a better way of doing it than just doing the following:

public class CheckoutController
{
    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult ViewBasket()
    {
        if (AppSettings.EcommerceEnabled)
        {
            return View();
        }
        else
        {
            return HttpNotFound();
        }
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult DeliveryAddress()
    {
        if (AppSettings.EcommerceEnabled)
        {
            return View();
        }
        else
        {
            return HttpNotFound();
        }
    }
}

emre nevayeshirazi emre nevayeshirazi · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-10T11:37:34

You can create a custom action filter that will be used for action methods inside CheckoutController.

public class CommercePermissionAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        if (AppSettings.EcommerceEnabled)
        {
            base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);
        }
        else
        {
           // Example for redirection
           filterContext.Result = new RedirectToRouteResult(
                new RouteValueDictionary 
                { 
                    { "Controller", "Error" }, 
                    { "Action", "AccessDenied" }
                });
        }  
    }
}

Then you can use this filter on each action method by

[HttpGet]
[CommercePermission]
public ActionResult ViewBasket()

Or if you want whole controller actions to have this filter,

[CommercePermission]
public class CheckoutController

You can even apply filters globally to all actions in your project.

You can find more info here.

mvc controller default action

2 Answers