Conditionally disable ASP.NET MVC Controller

Question

What is the best way to disable ASP.NET MVC controller conditionally?

I want to have an access to the controller actions if some value in web.config is "true" and 404 if it's "false"

Should I write my own attribute?

UPDATE: Looking for more elegant solution than action filter attribute (with an ability to pass not constant parameter to attribute constructor)

    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, AllowMultiple = true, Inherited = true)]
    public class CloseForSomeSettingAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
    {
        public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
        {
            bool mySettingValue = MySettingManager.GetMySettingValue();

            if (mySettingValue)
            {
                filterContext.Result = new HttpStatusCodeResult(404);
            }
            else
            {
                base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);
            }
        }
    }

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 23 '12 at 00:52

6

The easiest would probably be to implement a custom action filter:

http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/older-versions/controllers-and-routing/understanding-action-filters-cs

You can also conditionally add a route that matches that controller that would result in a 404 being returned.

answered Jul 23 '12 at 00:52

igz168

94
2

thanks. have written the action filter attribute (see my comment). but maybe some more elegant solution exists? – Dmitry Khryukin Jul 23 '12 at 01:16
I don't know your purpose here but perhaps it's best not to do this at the application level? I'm thinking using IIS url-rewrite module to setup rules for the routes you're looking to return 404. Take a look at the examples below:http://blogs.iis.net/ruslany/archive/2009/04/08/10-url-rewriting-tips-and-tricks.aspx – igz168 Jul 23 '12 at 02:23
no. I need to have an ability to switch it from a web.config file. – Dmitry Khryukin Jul 23 '12 at 02:26
1

the rules for url-rewrite are stored in the web.config – igz168 Jul 23 '12 at 03:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 13 '20 at 16:18

3

Answered here - Prevent ASP.NET Core discovering Controller in separate assembly

This approach doesn't need filters, and hides controller from swagger etc.

answered Nov 13 '20 at 16:18

David McEleney

3,397
1
26
32

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Cross posting from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43044667/257470

My solution for disabling ApiController controller:

Uses WebConfig AppSettings config flag instead of (#if DEBUG)
Before method is invoked ExecuteAsync intercepts the invocation and checks feature toggle (feature flag);
if feature is disabled, returns HTTP 410 GONE
If it's common for many controllers, move the code to controller's base class

The code:

public class TestController : ApiController
{
    public override Task<HttpResponseMessage> ExecuteAsync(HttpControllerContext controllerContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        var featureFlag = Convert.ToBoolean(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["EnableTest"]);

        if (featureFlag == false)
        {
            return Task.FromResult(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.Gone));
        }

        return base.ExecuteAsync(controllerContext, cancellationToken);
    }

Conditionally disable ASP.NET MVC Controller

3 Answers3

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