MVC: A public method on my controller is called OK in my development server, but not the testing server

Question

I am completely baffled by this. I have a public method on my controller which works on my development machine. But when I deploy the app I get an error message saying the method is not found;

    [HttpGet]
    [Authorize(Roles = "Administrator, AdminIT, ManagerIT")]
    public ActionResult ListExistingIT(GridSortOptions sort, int? page)
    {
        if (Request.QueryString["lastPersonMessage"] == null)
            ViewData["LastPersonMessage"] = string.Empty;
        else
            ViewData["LastPersonMessage"] = Request.QueryString["lastPersonMessage"];
        EmployeeListViewModel elvm = new EmployeeListViewModel();
        elvm.EmployeeList = EmployeeExtended.GetITEmployees();
        if (sort.Column != null)
        {
            elvm.EmployeeList = elvm.EmployeeList.OrderBy(sort.Column, sort.Direction);
        }
        elvm.EmployeeList = elvm.EmployeeList.AsPagination(page ?? 1, Utility.GetPageLength());
        ViewData["sort"] = sort;
        return View(elvm);
    }

The error message is; System.Web.HttpException: A public action method 'ListExistingIT' was not found on controller 'SHP.Controllers.EmployeeController'.

Now you might think that IIS is not picking up the latest deployment. However I make a change elsewhere and deploy it, and that works. I also restart IIS as well. I cannot imagine how this happens, or how to detect where the error could be.

How are you calling this action? What url are you using? What HTTP verb? Is there AJAX involved? What does FireBug say about the request? — Darin Dimitrov, Mar 30 '11 at 17:11
Do you have other MVC apps that work on this server, or are other ActionResults accessible on the server? — jlnorsworthy, Mar 30 '11 at 17:13
What browser are you using, have you tried different browsers? — BlackTigerX, Mar 30 '11 at 18:03
@BlackTigerX, browsers don't have anything to do with what he's experiencing. His issue is purely on the server side. — Gup3rSuR4c, Mar 30 '11 at 18:34

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

1

There is plenty of discussion on a similar (the same?) issue here on SO:Intermittent asp.net mvc exception: “A public action method ABC could not be found on controller XYZ.”

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

1
1

answered Mar 30 '11 at 17:23

jlnorsworthy

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '11 at 18:39

I can think of 3 different possibilities:

A conflict with the HttpVerb causing the method not to be found.
A conflict with the filters applied causing the method to be avoided.
A routing issue, but this one is probably the last possibility. You may want to try testing with the RouteDebugger and see what that shows you.

MVC: A public method on my controller is called OK in my development server, but not the testing server

2 Answers2