ASP.NET MVC: Execute code on all Actions (global OnActionExecuting?)

Question

Is there a "global" OnActionExecuting that I can override to have all my MVC actions (regardless of controller) do something when they get called? If so, how?

Answer 1

Asp.net MVC3 added support for Global Filters

From the ScottGu blog:

ASP.NET MVC supports the ability to declaratively apply “cross-cutting” logic using a mechanism called “filters”. You can specify filters on Controllers and Action Methods today using an attribute syntax like so:

Developers often want to apply some filter logic across all controllers within an application. ASP.NET MVC 3 now enables you to specify that a filter should apply globally to all Controllers within an application. You can now do this by adding it to the GlobalFilters collection. A RegisterGlobalFilters() method is now included in the default Global.asax class template to provide a convenient place to do this (it is then called by the Application_Start() method):

The filter resolution logic in MVC 3 is flexible so that you can configure a global filter that only applies conditionally if certain conditions are met (for example: debugging is enabled, or if a request uses a particular http verb, etc). Filters can also now be resolved from a Dependency Injection (DI) container.

Answer 2

Nope. The easiest way to do this is to write a common base class that all of your controller types subclass, then stick an action filter on that base class or override its OnActionExecuting() method.