MVC Web .Net: Intercept all calls before reaching controller? - asp.net

I have a .Net MVC web application (Not WebAPI), and I want to intercept all calls to the web app before they reach the controller, check for a value in the request headers, and do something if the value isn't present (such as presenting a 404). What's the ideal way to do this? Keep in mind this is not a Web API application, just a simple web application.

Depending on what specifically you want to do, you could use a default controller which all other controllers extend. That way you can override OnActionExecuting or Initialize and do your check there.
public class ApplicationController : Controller
{
protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
//do your stuff here
}
}
public class YourController : ApplicationController
{
}

You're looking for global action filters.
Create a class that inherits ActionFilterAttribute, override OnActionExecuting() to perform your processing, and add an instances to global filter collection in Global.asax.cs (inside RegisterGlobalFilters())

Related

How to register delegating handlers in a MVC Application? (not Web API)

How do I register a global message handler in a MVC application?
I tried registering it in my Global.asax.cs, but this handler never gets called whenever I access any of my endpoints in all my controllers that inherit from System.Web.Mvc.Controller.
However, it does get called when I access routes all my controllers that inherit from System.Web.Http.ApiController.
This is what I put in my Global.asax.cs:
protected void Application_Start()
{
//other initializing stuff here
**GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.MessageHandlers.Add(new AuthenticationHandler());**
}
I believe you're looking for Filters. You could build something like this:
public class MyAuthorizationFilter : IAuthorizationFilter
{
public void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
{
// do your work here
}
}
and then add it to the global filters list in Application_Start:
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Filters.Add(new MyAuthorizationFilter());

Protect certain MVC methods with a custom Attribute to prevent multiple logins?

I need to prevent users logging into my ASP.NET MVC application from multiple sessions, and found this answer how to do it.
Now I want to add an MVC twist: some of the public methods on the Controller are unprotected, and I don't care who accesses them, and some are protected by an [Authorize] attribute to ensure that only logged-in users can access them. Now I want to customize the AuthorizeAttribute so that all methods flagged with that attribute will do the no-multiple-login verification described in the related question, and throw some kind of LoggedInElsewhereException so that the client can understand if and why the check failed.
I'm sure it can be done, but how?
Just derive your new attribute from AuthorizeAttribute and override OnAuthorization method. In the method do your "single session" checks first, then fall back to base implementation.
E.g.
public class CheckSessionAndAuthorizeAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
{
public override OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext context)
{
//check session id in cache or database
bool isSessionOK = CheckSession();
if (!isSessionOK)
{
//can be View, Redirect or absolutely customized logic
context.Result = new MyCustomResultThatExplainsError();
return;
}
//do base stuff
base.OnAuthorization(context);
}
}

Using Spring.Net to inject dependencies into ASP.NET MVC ActionFilters

I'm using MvcContrib to do my Spring.Net ASP.Net MVC controller dependency injection.
My dependencies are not being injected into my CustomAttribute action filter.
How to I get my dependencies into it?
Say you have an ActionFilter that looks like so:
public class CustomAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute, ICustomAttribute
{
private IAwesomeService awesomeService;
public CustomAttribute(){}
public CustomAttribute(IAwesomeService awesomeService)
{
this.awesomeService= awesomeService;
}
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
//Do some work
}
}
With a Spring.Net configuration section that looks like so:
<object id="CustomAttribute " type="Assembly.CustomAttribute , Assembly" singleton="false">
<constructor-arg ref="AwesomeService"/>
</object>
And you use the Attribute like so:
[Custom]
public FooController : Controller
{
//Do some work
}
The tough part here is that ActionFilters seem to get instantiated new with each request and in a context that is outside of where Spring is aware. I handled the same situations using the Spring "ContextRegistry" class in my ActionFilter constructor. Unfortunately it introduces Spring specific API usage into your code, which is a good practice to avoid, if possible.
Here's what my constructor looks like:
public MyAttribute()
{
CustomHelper = ContextRegistry.GetContext().GetObject("CustomHelper") as IConfigHelper;
}
Keep in mind that if you are loading multiple Spring contexts, you will need to specify which context you want in the GetContext(...) method.

Injecting Lower Layer Dependency in Presenter in an ASP.NET MVP Application

I recently read Phil Haack's post where he gives an example of implementing Model View Presenter for ASP.NET. One of the code snippets shows how the code for the view class.
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page, IPostEditView
{
PostEditController controller;
public _Default()
{
this.controller = new PostEditController(this, new BlogDataService());
}
}
However, here the view constructs the instance of the BlogDataService and passes it along to the presenter. Ideally the view should not know about BlogDataService or any of the presenter's lower layer dependencies. But i also prefer to keep the BlogDataService as a constructor injected dependency of the presenter as it makes the dependencies of the presenter explicit.
This same question has been asked on stackoverflow here.
One of the answers suggests using a service locator to get the instance of the BlogDataService and passing it along to the presenter's constructor.This solution however does not solve the problem of the view knowing about the BlogDataService and needing to explicitly get a reference to it.
Is there a way to automatically construct the presenter object using an IoC or DI container tool such that the view does not have to deal with explicitly creating the BlogDataService object and also injecting the view and service instances into the presenter's constructor. I prefer to use the constructor injection pattern as far as possible.
Or is there a better design available to solve the problem?. Can there be a better way to implement this If i am building a WinForms application instead of a ASP.NET WebForms application?
Thanks for any feedback.
Yes there is. For example using StructureMap in a webform constructor:
public partial class AttributeDetails : EntityDetailView<AttributeDetailPresenter>, IAttributeDetailView
{
public AttributeDetails()
{
_presenter = ObjectFactory.With<IAttributeDetailView>(this).GetInstance<AttributeDetailPresenter>();
}
....
}
and as you can see here presenter needs view and service injected
public AttributeDetailPresenter(IAttributeDetailView view, IAttributeService attributeService)
{
MyForm = view;
AppService = attributeService;
}
You can also use StructureMap BuildUp feature for webforms so that you can avoid using ObjectFactory directly in your view.
I did exactly this. The solution is based on Autofac, but can be implemented on top of any container.
First, define an interface representing the authority for presenting views in a request to the MVP system:
public interface IMvpRequest
{
void Present(object view);
}
Next, create a base page which has a property of that type:
public abstract class PageView : Page
{
public IMvpRequest MvpRequest { get; set; }
}
At this point, set up dependency injection for pages. Most containers have ASP.NET integration, usually in the form of HTTP modules. Because we don't create the page instance, we can't use constructor injection, and have to use property injection here only.
After that is set up, create event arguments representing a view which is ready to be presented:
public class PresentableEventArgs : EventArgs
{}
Now, catch the events in PageView and pass them to the request (present the page as well):
protected override bool OnBubbleEvent(object source, EventArgs args)
{
var cancel = false;
if(args is PresentableEventArgs)
{
cancel = true;
Present(source);
}
else
{
cancel = base.OnBubbleEvent(source, args);
}
return cancel;
}
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnLoad(e);
Present(this);
}
private void Present(object view)
{
if(MvpRequest != null && view != null)
{
MvpRequest.Present(view);
}
}
Finally, create base classes for each type of control you'd like to serve as a view (master pages, composite controls, etc.):
public abstract class UserControlView : UserControl
{
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnLoad(e);
EnsureChildControls();
RaiseBubbleEvent(this, new PresentableEventArgs());
}
}
This connects the control tree to the MVP system via IMvpRequest, which you'll now have to implement and register in the application-level container. The ASP.NET integration should take care of injecting the implementation into the page. This decouples the page entirely from presenter creation, relying on IMvpRequest to do the mapping.
The implementation of IMvpRequest will be container-specific. Presenters will be registered in the container like other types, meaning their constructors will automatically be resolved.
You will have some sort of map from view types to presenter types:
public interface IPresenterMap
{
Type GetPresenterType(Type viewType);
}
These are the types you will resolve from the container.
(The one gotcha here is that the view already exists, meaning the container doesn't create the instance or ever know about it. You will have to pass it in as a resolution parameter, another concept supported by most containers.)
A decent default mapping might look like this:
[Presenter(typeof(LogOnPresenter))]
public class LogOnPage : PageView, ILogOnView
{
// ...
}

Programmatically register HttpModules at runtime

I'm writing an app where 3rd party vendors can write plugin DLLs and drop them into the web app's bin directory. I want the ability for these plugins to be able to register their own HttpModules if necessary.
Is there anyway that I can add or remove HttpModules from and to the pipeline at runtime without having a corresponding entry in the Web.Config, or do I have to programmatically edit the Web.Config when adding / removing modules? I know that either way is going to cause an AppDomain restart but I'd rather be able to do it in code than having to fudge the web.config to achieve the same effect.
It has to be done at just the right
time in the HttpApplication life cycle
which is when the HttpApplication
object initializes (multiple times,
once for each instance of
HttpApplication). The only method
where this works correct is
HttpApplication Init().
To hook up a module via code you can
run code like the following instead of
the HttpModule definition in
web.config:
public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
// some modules use explicit interface implementation
// by declaring this static member as the IHttpModule interface
// we work around that
public static IHttpModule Module = new xrnsToashxMappingModule();
public override void Init()
{
base.Init();
Module.Init(this);
}
}
All you do is override the HttpApplication's Init() method and
then access the static instance's Init
method. Init() of the module hooks up
the event and off you go.
Via Rick Strahl's blog
Realize this is an old question, but asp.net 4 provides some new capabilities that can help here.
Specifically, ASP.NET 4 provides a PreApplicationStartMethod capability that can be used to add HttpModules programmatically.
I just did a blog post on that at http://www.nikhilk.net/Config-Free-HttpModule-Registration.aspx.
The basic idea is you create a derived HttpApplication that provides ability to add HttpModules dynamically at startup time, and it then initializes them into the pipeline whenever each HttpApplication instance is created within the app-domain.
The dll Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.dll has a method for this inside the class DynamicModuleUtility.
The dll is shipped with WebPages 1.0
public static class PreApplicationStartCode
{
private static bool _startWasCalled;
public static void Start()
{
if (_startWasCalled) return;
_startWasCalled = true;
DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(EventTriggeringHttpModule));
}
}
This worked for me for dynamic registration.
RegisterModule(typeof(RequestLoggerModule));
public class RequestLoggerModule : IHttpModule
{ ... }
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.web.httpapplication.registermodule?view=netframework-4.7.2
In new versions of ASP MVC you can use Package Manager to add a reference to WebActivatorX and then do something like this
using WhateverNameSpacesYouNeed;
[assembly: WebActivatorEx.PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(YourApp.SomeNameSpace.YourClass), "Initialize")]
namespace YourApp.SomeNameSpace
{
public static void Initialize()
{
DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule( ... the type that implements IHttpModule ... );
}
}

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