Getting All Controllers and Actions names in C#

Question

Is it possible to list the names of all controllers and their actions programmatically?

I want to implement database driven security for each controller and action. As a developer, I know all controllers and actions and can add them to a database table, but is there any way to add them automatically?

Answer 1

The following will extract controllers, actions, attributes and return types:

Assembly asm = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(MyWebDll.MvcApplication));

var controlleractionlist = asm.GetTypes()
        .Where(type=> typeof(System.Web.Mvc.Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type))
        .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public))
        .Where(m => !m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof( System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute), true).Any())
        .Select(x => new {Controller = x.DeclaringType.Name, Action = x.Name, ReturnType = x.ReturnType.Name, Attributes = String.Join(",", x.GetCustomAttributes().Select(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute",""))) })
        .OrderBy(x=>x.Controller).ThenBy(x => x.Action).ToList();

If you run this code in linqpad for instance and call

controlleractionlist.Dump();

you get the following output:

Answer 2

You can use reflection to find all Controllers in the current assembly, and then find their public methods that are not decorated with the NonAction attribute.

Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

asm.GetTypes()
    .Where(type=> typeof(Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type)) //filter controllers
    .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods())
    .Where(method => method.IsPublic && ! method.IsDefined(typeof(NonActionAttribute)));

Answer 3

I was looking for a way to get Area, Controller and Action and for this I manage to change a little the methods you post here, so if anyone is looking for a way to get the AREA here is my ugly method (which I save to an xml):

 public static void GetMenuXml()
        {
       var projectName = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName.Split(',')[0];

        Assembly asm = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(MvcApplication));

        var model = asm.GetTypes().
            SelectMany(t => t.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public))
            .Where(d => d.ReturnType.Name == "ActionResult").Select(n => new MyMenuModel()
            {
                Controller = n.DeclaringType?.Name.Replace("Controller", ""),
                Action = n.Name,
                ReturnType = n.ReturnType.Name,
                Attributes = string.Join(",", n.GetCustomAttributes().Select(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute", ""))),
                Area = n.DeclaringType.Namespace.ToString().Replace(projectName + ".", "").Replace("Areas.", "").Replace(".Controllers", "").Replace("Controllers", "")
            });

        SaveData(model.ToList());
    }

Edit:

//assuming that the namespace is ProjectName.Areas.Admin.Controllers

 Area=n.DeclaringType.Namespace.Split('.').Reverse().Skip(1).First()