ASP.NET MVC 4 intercept all incoming requests

Question

Is there a way for me to catch all incoming requests to my ASP.NET MVC 4 app and run some code before continuing the request onward to the specified controller/action?

I need to run some custom auth code with existing services, and to do this properly, I'll need to be able intercept all incoming requests from all clients to double check some things with the other service.

See my filtering article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg416513(VS.98).aspx — RickAndMSFT, Jul 30 '12 at 19:50

score 83 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 30 '12 at 17:57

83

The most correct way would be to create a class that inherits ActionFilterAttribute and override OnActionExecuting method. This can then be registered in the GlobalFilters in Global.asax.cs

Of course, this will only intercept requests that actually have a route.

edited Jul 30 '12 at 17:57

Erik Philips

53,428
11
128
150

answered Jul 30 '12 at 17:54

Yngve B-Nilsen

9,606
2
36
50

10

The only (ugly) otherway is the `protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)`. – Erik Philips Jul 30 '12 at 17:55
1

Well, I guess you could also create a HttpHandler and register that to catch all in web.config, but that's really dirty :) – Yngve B-Nilsen Jul 30 '12 at 17:56
Great, thanks! Will mark as answer when enough time has passed. – Jesse Jul 30 '12 at 17:58
1

Is there a way to force a redirect from within the `OnActionExecuting` override? – Jesse Jul 30 '12 at 18:56
2

Yeah, you can set the filterContext.Result to a RedirectResult – Yngve B-Nilsen Jul 30 '12 at 19:21
1

You can change the result to whatever type of ActionResult you see fit – Yngve B-Nilsen Jul 30 '12 at 19:23
One thing (I think) to note is that this means you only get requests that match an actual route to an action. If you want to log *all* requests, I think `Application_BeginRequest` might be a better option, no? – Peter Nov 07 '16 at 15:39
@YngveB-Nilsen could you elaborate on how to override it? I'm stuck at this since I new to VB.Net. Since it is the accepted answer, it could use some more details :) – luizfzs Jul 25 '17 at 16:03
1

@luizfzs Since this answer is from 2012, I'm pretty sure my answer is no longer the complete solution. Take a look at this article: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd410056(v=vs.98).aspx – Yngve B-Nilsen Jul 26 '17 at 18:16

score 39 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 30 '12 at 17:57

You can use a HttpModule to accomplish this. Here is a sample I use to calculate the process time for all requests:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Web;

namespace Sample.HttpModules
{
    public class PerformanceMonitorModule : IHttpModule
    {

        public void Init(HttpApplication httpApp)
        {
            httpApp.BeginRequest += OnBeginRequest;
            httpApp.EndRequest += OnEndRequest;
            httpApp.PreSendRequestHeaders += OnHeaderSent;
        }

        public void OnHeaderSent(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var httpApp = (HttpApplication)sender;
            httpApp.Context.Items["HeadersSent"] = true;
        }

        // Record the time of the begin request event.
        public void OnBeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var httpApp = (HttpApplication)sender;
            if (httpApp.Request.Path.StartsWith("/media/")) return;
            var timer = new Stopwatch();
            httpApp.Context.Items["Timer"] = timer;
            httpApp.Context.Items["HeadersSent"] = false;
            timer.Start();
        }

        public void OnEndRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var httpApp = (HttpApplication)sender;
            if (httpApp.Request.Path.StartsWith("/media/")) return;
            var timer = (Stopwatch)httpApp.Context.Items["Timer"];

            if (timer != null)
            {
                timer.Stop();
                if (!(bool)httpApp.Context.Items["HeadersSent"])
                {
                    httpApp.Context.Response.AppendHeader("ProcessTime",
                                                          ((double)timer.ElapsedTicks / Stopwatch.Frequency) * 1000 +
                                                          " ms.");
                }
            }

            httpApp.Context.Items.Remove("Timer");
            httpApp.Context.Items.Remove("HeadersSent");

        }

        public void Dispose() { /* Not needed */ }
    }

}

And this is how you register the module in Web.Config:

<system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
        <add name="PerformanceMonitorModule" type="Sample.HttpModules.PerformanceMonitorModule" />
    </modules>
<//system.webServer>

If the goal is to capture MVC app requests before they go to the controller, filtering is a much better approach. See my article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg416513(VS.98).aspx - my sample has a nice timing filter — RickAndMSFT, Jul 30 '12 at 19:51
I would recommend against this approach since it uses `runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests` which is a performance drag. `Application_BeginRequest` seems like a much simpler way to achieve the result — Quango, Dec 23 '15 at 13:52
No need for `runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"` to drag performance down, if all you want is to execute the module for managed code: just specify `preCondition="managedHandler"` on the module. See: [Achtung! IIS7 Preconditions](https://blogs.iis.net/thomad/precondition-what). — Bouke, Feb 21 '22 at 14:47

user2173353 · Answer 3 · 2013-12-10T08:51:08.923

26

I think that what you search for is this:

Application_BeginRequest()

http://www.dotnetcurry.com/showarticle.aspx?ID=126

You put it in Global.asax.cs.

    protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Request.....;
    }

I use this for debugging purposes but I am not sure how good solution it is for your case.

edited Dec 10 '13 at 08:51

answered Dec 10 '13 at 08:44

user2173353

4,316
4
47
79

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 25 '18 at 13:07

I'm not sure about MVC4 but I think it is fairly similar to MVC5. If you have created a new web project -> look in Global.asax and you should see the following line FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters); in the method Application_Start().

RegisterGlobalFilters is a method in the file FilterConfig.cs located in the folder App_Start.

As @YngveB-Nilsen said ActionFilterAttribute is the way to go in my opinion. Add a new class that derives from System.Web.Mvc.ActionFilterAttribute. This is important because System.Web.Http.Filters.ActionFilterAttribute will fail with the following exception for example.

The given filter instance must implement one or more of the following filter interfaces: System.Web.Mvc.IAuthorizationFilter, System.Web.Mvc.IActionFilter, System.Web.Mvc.IResultFilter, System.Web.Mvc.IExceptionFilter, System.Web.Mvc.Filters.IAuthenticationFilter.

Example that writes the request to the debug window:

public class DebugActionFilter : System.Web.Mvc.ActionFilterAttribute
{
  public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext actionContext)
  {
    Debug.WriteLine(actionContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request);
  }
}

In FilterConfig -> RegisterGlobalFilters -> add the following line: filters.Add(new DebugActionFilter());.

You can now catch all incoming requests and modify them.

ASP.NET MVC 4 intercept all incoming requests

4 Answers4

Linked