How find references for MVC controller methods in Visual Studio

Question

Coming from a long period of WebForms development, I recently began working with MVC. One thing that struck me, is that since controller methods are not called directly from code, Visual Studio won't pick up any references to them.

I understand the reason why there is no reference count, but it can be problematic sometimes. Let's say I rewrite a controller method to accomodate some new requirement, perhaps a certain call to the method needs additional data or a modified result. But perhaps that method, or endpoint if you will, is being called from several places, and the change I made breaks the result handling for those other calls. I would like to be able to easily find all the code in my solution, which is going to invoke the endpoint.

Currently I tend to copy the method name and perform a regular text search in the entire solution, which works rather well as long as the method name isn't too generic. If the method name is "Index", it can be a long day.

Are there any recommendations on how to simplify this, such as coding conventions, plugins or otherwise? I.E. how can I locate from where the endpoint will be invoked?

I currently use Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise, but solutions working in other versions as well are preferred - to make the answer useful for as many as possible. Thanks in advance / Culme

UPDATE: I learned a lot based on the comments and replies I got. Apart from what is mentioned below, I also decided to try and keep my controller method names unique and identifiable, to simplify finding where they are being used. As an example, instead of just "Index", I'll try to use "Fidgets_IndexController" or something similar. That way, a simple text search will go a long way for locating calling code.

Answer 1

Controller methods are not directly referenced from any part of the code (therefore 0 references), but they are dynamically invoked based on RouteTable which maps controller methods on startup RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); in global.asax "implicitly" which would map them as /controller_name/action_name or these can be changed by either editing RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) or using attributes:

[Route("myAction")]
public ActionResult MyAction() {
...
}

which would bind it to /myAction (without controller name)

further reading:

MSDN - Understanding MVC Application Execution Process

Lifecycle of an ASP.NET MVC 5 Application

ASP.NET MVC Routing Overview