Using a dash (-) in ASP.MVC parameters

Question

<% using (Html.BeginForm("SubmitUserName")) { %>
    <input type='text' name='user-name' />
    <input type='submit' value='Send' />
<% } %>

What should be a signature of a corresponding Action method to accept user-name parameter?

public ActionResult SubmitUserName(string user-name) {...}

Method signature above does not work for some reason ;-)

I know there is an ActionNameAttribute to handle situation with a dash in action name. Is there something like ParameterNameAttribute?

It is not required at all. It just puzzling that MVC didn't think of this scenario. I don't actually use it, just curious if its there...or why it isn't there. — THX-1138, Aug 11 '10 at 19:06
There are scenarios where you're using a third-party tool and you need to support dashes — Savage, Jun 17 '19 at 11:25

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '13 at 16:57

13

Create a pseudo-parameter in the first line of the action method:

public ActionResult SubmitUserName()
{
    string userName = Request.Params["user-name"];
    ...
}

answered Mar 07 '13 at 16:57

Edward Brey

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That didn't even compile for me. Are you talking about ApiController? – Tim Lovell-Smith Jan 11 '14 at 18:06
Oh silly me, the question is about MVC... and I'm doing Web API. OK then. – Tim Lovell-Smith Jan 11 '14 at 18:14

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 11 '10 at 18:28

As everyone has noted, the easiest fix would be not to use a dash. If you truly need the dash, you can create your own ActionFilterAttribute to handle it, though.

Something like:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = true)]
public class ParameterNameAttribute :  ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public string ViewParameterName { get; set; }
    public string ActionParameterName { get; set; }

    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        if(filterContext.ActionParameters.ContainsKey(ViewParameterName))
        {
            var parameterValue = filterContext.ActionParameters[ViewParameterName];
            filterContext.ActionParameters.Add(ActionParameterName, parameterValue);   
        }
    }
}

You would then apply the filter to the appropriate Action method:

[ParameterName( ViewParameterName = "user-data", ActionParameterName = "userData")]
[ParameterName( ViewParameterName = "my-data", ActionParameterName = "myData" )]
    public ActionResult About(string userData, string myData)
    {
        return View();
    }

You would probably want to enhance the ParameterNameAttribute to handle upper/lower case, but that would be the basic idea.

`OnActionExecuting` should use `TryGetValue` to avoid the double lookup of `ContainsKey` followed by the indexer. — Edward Brey, Apr 13 '16 at 13:02

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 09 '19 at 13:40

Not answering the actual question based on the technlogy in question, but anyway, the world moves forward in some areas; in AspNetCore.Mvc you can simply do:

    [HttpGet()]
    public ActionResult SubmitUserName( [FromHeader(Name = "user-Name")] string userName) {...}

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 21 '12 at 22:48

I found this answer helpful, but I don't know exactly how the provided example helps. It appears to just "rename" a value that the binder all ready provided.

In my case, I was being posted to by an external service that would post something like "body-plain" and I could not control the name. So I modified this sample to look like this:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = true)]
public class ParameterNameMapAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public string InboundParameterName { get; set; }
    public string ActionParameterName { get; set; }

    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        object value = filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request[InboundParameterName];

        if (filterContext.ActionParameters.ContainsKey(ActionParameterName))
        {
            filterContext.ActionParameters[ActionParameterName] = value;
        }
        else
        {
            throw new Exception("Parameter not found on controller: " + ActionParameterName);
        }
    }
}

This actually takes in the parameter "body-plain" for example and maps it to an ActionParameter I defined on my controller. Like so:

[ParameterNameMap(InboundParameterName = "body-plain", ActionParameterName = "bodyPlainText")]
    [ParameterNameMap(InboundParameterName = "Thread-Topic", ActionParameterName = "alternateSubject")]
    public HttpStatusCodeResult Process(string token, string timestamp, string signature, string subject, string sender, string recipient, string bodyPlainText, string alternateSubject)
    {

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 11 '10 at 18:05

I would suggest doing something like this - unless it's required to use the user-name attribute (or you're not binding to a model)

<% using (Html.BeginForm("SubmitUserName")) { %>
    <%: Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.UserName) %>
    <input type='submit' value='Send' />
<% } %>

Using a dash (-) in ASP.MVC parameters

5 Answers5

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