Redirect to external url from OnActionExecuting?

Question

I need to redirect to an external url (let's say "www.google.com") from OnActionExecuting method. Right now I'm using something like this:

public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
    if (!HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
    {
        var redirectUrl = "www.google.com";

        try
        {
            var isAjaxRequest = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest();

            if (isAjaxRequest)
            {
                filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = SessionController.CustomHttpRedirect;
                filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusDescription = redirectUrl;

                filterContext.Result = new JsonResult
                {
                    Data = new { Redirect = redirectUrl },
                    JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet
                };
            }
            else
            {
                filterContext.Result = new RedirectResult(redirectUrl, true);

            }

                return;
            }
            else
            {
                throw new LoggedOutException();
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            throw new LoggedOutException();
        }
    }
}

The problem is that it's not redirecting me to "www.google.com" but it's redirecting to "http://localhost:1234/www.google.com" (I try it locally). There is any way to solve this ? Thanks

Answer 1

The problem was verry easy to solve:

public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
    if (!HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
    {
        var redirectUrl = "http://www.google.com";

        try
        {
            var isAjaxRequest = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest();

            if (isAjaxRequest)
            {
                filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = SessionController.CustomHttpRedirect;
                filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusDescription = redirectUrl;

                filterContext.Result = new JsonResult
                {
                    Data = new { Redirect = redirectUrl },
                    JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet
                };
            }
            else
            {
                filterContext.Result = new RedirectResult(redirectUrl, true);

            }

                return;
            }
            else
            {
                throw new LoggedOutException();
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            throw new LoggedOutException();
        }
    }
}

All I had to do was that when I assigned the value to "redirectUrl", I had tu put http before wwww. This mus be put if you use a SSL conenction and you're trying to redirect from mvc to another domain.

Answer 2

Instead of using:

filterContext.Result = new RedirectResult("www.google.com", true);

Try the following:

filterContext.Result = new RedirectToRouteResult(new RouteValueDictionary(new { controller = "Home", action = "External" , ReturnURL = "www.google.com"}));

and in your (Home) controller create an action called (External) and from there redirect to your external url:

 public class HomeController : Controller
        {
[AllowAnonymous]
         public ActionResult External(string ReturnURL){
           return Redirect(ReturnURL);
        }
    }

You can't directly perform a server side redirect from an ajax response. You could, however, return a JsonResult with the new url and perform the redirect with javascript. see this answer