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Getting Controller details in ASP.NET Core

In ASP.NET 4.x, there is a ReflectedControllerDescriptorclass which resides in System.Web.Mvc. This class provides the descriptor of a controller.
In my previous applications, I used to do this:
var controllerDescriptor = new ReflectedControllerDescriptor(controllerType);
var actions = (from a in controllerDescriptor.GetCanonicalActions()
let authorize = (AuthorizeAttribute)a.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(AuthorizeAttribute), false).SingleOrDefault()
select new ControllerNavigationItem
{
Action = a.ActionName,
Controller = a.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName,
Text =a.ActionName.SeperateWords(),
Area = GetArea(typeNamespace),
Roles = authorize?.Roles.Split(',')
}).ToList();
return actions;
The problem is I can't find any equivalent of this class in ASP.NET Core. I came across IActionDescriptorCollectionProviderwhich seems to provide limited details.
The Question
My goal is to write an equivalent code in ASP.NET Core. How do I achieve that?
Your help is really appreciated

I came across IActionDescriptorCollectionProvider which seems to
provide limited details.
Probably you don't cast ActionDescriptor to ControllerActionDescriptor. Related info is here
My goal is to write an equivalent code in ASP.NET Core. How do I
achieve that?
Here is my attempt in ConfigureServices method:
var provider = services.BuildServiceProvider().GetRequiredService<IActionDescriptorCollectionProvider>();
var ctrlActions = provider.ActionDescriptors.Items
.Where(x => (x as ControllerActionDescriptor)
.ControllerTypeInfo.AsType() == typeof(Home222Controller))
.ToList();
foreach (var action in ctrlActions)
{
var descriptor = action as ControllerActionDescriptor;
var controllerName = descriptor.ControllerName;
var actionName = descriptor.ActionName;
var areaName = descriptor.ControllerTypeInfo
.GetCustomAttribute<AreaAttribute>().RouteValue;
}

Error "405 Method Not Allow" When Calling Put method in Postman with body parameter

I was trying to call the Put method through Postman and always getting error: "405 Method Not Allow" and "Message": "The requested resource does not support http method 'PUT'."
I'm using DocumentDB and C#. Here is my code:
[Route("multilanguage/Resources/{id}/{Language}")]
[HttpPut]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> UpdateResource(string Id, string Language, string text)
{
client = new DocumentClient(new Uri(EndPoint), AuthKey);
var collectionLink = UriFactory.CreateDocumentCollectionUri(DatabaseId, CollectionId);
var query = new SqlQuerySpec("SELECT * FROM MultiLanguage as m where m.id = #pmId",
new SqlParameterCollection(new SqlParameter[] { new SqlParameter { Name = "#pmId", Value = Id } }));
Document doc = client.CreateDocumentQuery<Document>(
collectionLink, query).AsEnumerable().FirstOrDefault();
List<Models.Translations> d = doc.GetPropertyValue<List<Models.Translations>>("Translations");
Models.Translations temp = d.Find(p => p.Language == Language);
temp.Content = text;
temp.LastModified = DateTimeOffset.Now;
temp.ModifiedBy = "admin";
doc.SetPropertyValue("Translations", d);
Document updated = await client.ReplaceDocumentAsync(doc);
return Ok();
}
When I call the Put method throught Postman, I call "http://localhost:XXXX/multilanguage/resources/2/En". "2" and "En" are the first two parameters in my code. And I also specify the "text" parameter value in the Postman request Body with x-www-form-urlencoded type: key = text, value = Test! This put method suppose to update the temp.Content value to "Test!". However, it always failed with the error I mentioned above.
Did I miss anything here?

The 405 error when performing a PUT request to web api is a well known topic. You can find many solutions in this or this SO question.
And for the design of you controller:
PUT are designed to have a body, just like POST and in your case
you should send all parameters in the body instead.
You should create a class which contains the objects you want to send to the server:
public class resourceClass
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Language { get; set; }
public string text { get; set; }
}
Then specify the route without the attribute routing and get the object from the request body
[Route("multilanguage/Resources/PutResource")]
[HttpPut]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> UpdateResource([FromBody] resourceClass obj)
{
client = new DocumentClient(new Uri(EndPoint), AuthKey);
var collectionLink = UriFactory.CreateDocumentCollectionUri(DatabaseId, CollectionId);
var query = new SqlQuerySpec("SELECT * FROM MultiLanguage as m where m.id = #pmId",
new SqlParameterCollection(new SqlParameter[] { new SqlParameter { Name = "#pmId", Value = Id } }));
Document doc = client.CreateDocumentQuery<Document>(
collectionLink, query).AsEnumerable().FirstOrDefault();
List<Models.Translations> d = doc.GetPropertyValue<List<Models.Translations>>("Translations");
Models.Translations temp = d.Find(p => p.Language == Language);
temp.Content = text;
temp.LastModified = DateTimeOffset.Now;
temp.ModifiedBy = "admin";
doc.SetPropertyValue("Translations", d);
Document updated = await client.ReplaceDocumentAsync(doc);
return Ok();
}
From the client you could add an object to the PUT request of Content-Type application/json like this
var data = {
Id: clientId,
Language: clientLanguage,
text: clientText
};
Don't forget to stringify the json when adding it to the http request
data: JSON.stringify(data),
The PUT controller will then be reached at "http://localhost:XXXX/multilanguage/resources/putresource".

Check the URL for which you are posting the data, in my case the URL was incorrect because of which I got these errors, also verify that in Body you should select raw and change the Text to JSON if you are passing a JSON as a data.

Imlementing a Custom IRouter in ASP.NET 5 (vNext) MVC 6

I am attempting to convert this sample RouteBase implementation to work with MVC 6. I have worked out most of it by following the example in the Routing project, but I am getting tripped up on how to return the asynchronous Task from the method. I really don't care if it actually is asynchronous (cheers to anyone who can provide that answer), for now I just want to get it functioning.
I have the outgoing routes functioning (meaning ActionLink works fine when I put in the route values). The problem is with the RouteAsync method.
public Task RouteAsync(RouteContext context)
{
var requestPath = context.HttpContext.Request.Path.Value;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(requestPath) && requestPath[0] == '/')
{
// Trim the leading slash
requestPath = requestPath.Substring(1);
}
// Get the page that matches.
var page = GetPageList()
.Where(x => x.VirtualPath.Equals(requestPath))
.FirstOrDefault();
// If we got back a null value set, that means the URI did not match
if (page != null)
{
var routeData = new RouteData();
// This doesn't work
//var routeData = new RouteData(context.RouteData);
// This doesn't work
//routeData.Routers.Add(this);
// This doesn't work
//routeData.Routers.Add(new MvcRouteHandler());
// TODO: You might want to use the page object (from the database) to
// get both the controller and action, and possibly even an area.
// Alternatively, you could create a route for each table and hard-code
// this information.
routeData.Values["controller"] = "CustomPage";
routeData.Values["action"] = "Details";
// This will be the primary key of the database row.
// It might be an integer or a GUID.
routeData.Values["id"] = page.Id;
context.RouteData = routeData;
// When there is a match, the code executes to here
context.IsHandled = true;
// This test works
//await context.HttpContext.Response.WriteAsync("Hello there");
// This doesn't work
//return Task.FromResult(routeData);
// This doesn't work
//return Task.FromResult(context);
}
// This satisfies the return statement, but
// I'm not sure it is the right thing to return.
return Task.FromResult(0);
}
The entire method runs all the way through to the end when there is a match. But when it is done executing, it doesn't call the Details method of the CustomPage controller, as it should. I just get a blank white page in the browser.
I added the WriteAsync line as was done in this post and it writes Hello there to the blank page, but I can't understand why MVC isn't calling my controller (in previous versions this worked without a hitch). Unfortunately, that post covered every part of routing except for how to implement an IRouter or INamedRouter.
How can I make the RouteAsync method function?
Entire CustomRoute Implementation
using Microsoft.AspNet.Routing;
using Microsoft.Framework.Caching.Memory;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
public class PageInfo
{
// VirtualPath should not have a leading slash
// example: events/conventions/mycon
public string VirtualPath { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
}
public interface ICustomRoute : IRouter
{ }
public class CustomRoute : ICustomRoute
{
private readonly IMemoryCache cache;
private object synclock = new object();
public CustomRoute(IMemoryCache cache)
{
this.cache = cache;
}
public Task RouteAsync(RouteContext context)
{
var requestPath = context.HttpContext.Request.Path.Value;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(requestPath) && requestPath[0] == '/')
{
// Trim the leading slash
requestPath = requestPath.Substring(1);
}
// Get the page that matches.
var page = GetPageList()
.Where(x => x.VirtualPath.Equals(requestPath))
.FirstOrDefault();
// If we got back a null value set, that means the URI did not match
if (page != null)
{
var routeData = new RouteData();
// TODO: You might want to use the page object (from the database) to
// get both the controller and action, and possibly even an area.
// Alternatively, you could create a route for each table and hard-code
// this information.
routeData.Values["controller"] = "CustomPage";
routeData.Values["action"] = "Details";
// This will be the primary key of the database row.
// It might be an integer or a GUID.
routeData.Values["id"] = page.Id;
context.RouteData = routeData;
context.IsHandled = true;
}
return Task.FromResult(0);
}
public VirtualPathData GetVirtualPath(VirtualPathContext context)
{
VirtualPathData result = null;
PageInfo page = null;
// Get all of the pages from the cache.
var pages = GetPageList();
if (TryFindMatch(pages, context.Values, out page))
{
result = new VirtualPathData(this, page.VirtualPath);
context.IsBound = true;
}
return result;
}
private bool TryFindMatch(IEnumerable<PageInfo> pages, IDictionary<string, object> values, out PageInfo page)
{
page = null;
int id;
object idObj;
object controller;
object action;
if (!values.TryGetValue("id", out idObj))
{
return false;
}
id = Convert.ToInt32(idObj);
values.TryGetValue("controller", out controller);
values.TryGetValue("action", out action);
// The logic here should be the inverse of the logic in
// GetRouteData(). So, we match the same controller, action, and id.
// If we had additional route values there, we would take them all
// into consideration during this step.
if (action.Equals("Details") && controller.Equals("CustomPage"))
{
page = pages
.Where(x => x.Id.Equals(id))
.FirstOrDefault();
if (page != null)
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
private IEnumerable<PageInfo> GetPageList()
{
string key = "__CustomPageList";
IEnumerable<PageInfo> pages;
// Only allow one thread to poplate the data
if (!this.cache.TryGetValue(key, out pages))
{
lock (synclock)
{
if (!this.cache.TryGetValue(key, out pages))
{
// TODO: Retrieve the list of PageInfo objects from the database here.
pages = new List<PageInfo>()
{
new PageInfo() { Id = 1, VirtualPath = "somecategory/somesubcategory/content1" },
new PageInfo() { Id = 2, VirtualPath = "somecategory/somesubcategory/content2" },
new PageInfo() { Id = 3, VirtualPath = "somecategory/somesubcategory/content3" }
};
this.cache.Set(key, pages,
new MemoryCacheEntryOptions()
{
Priority = CacheItemPriority.NeverRemove,
AbsoluteExpirationRelativeToNow = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15)
});
}
}
}
return pages;
}
}
CustomRoute DI Registration
services.AddTransient<ICustomRoute, CustomRoute>();
MVC Route Configuration
// Add MVC to the request pipeline.
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.Routes.Add(routes.ServiceProvider.GetService<ICustomRoute>());
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
// Uncomment the following line to add a route for porting Web API 2 controllers.
// routes.MapWebApiRoute("DefaultApi", "api/{controller}/{id?}");
});
In case it matters I am using Beta 5, DNX 4.5.1 and DNX Core 5.
Solution
I created a generic solution that can be used for a simple primary key to URL 2-way mapping in this answer based on the information I learned here. The controller, action, data provider, and datatype of the primary key can be specified when wiring it into MVC 6 routing.

As #opiants said, the problem is that you are doing nothing in your RouteAsync method.
If your intention is to end up calling a controller action method, you could use the following approach than the default MVC routes:
By default MVC uses a
TemplateRoute
with an inner target IRouter. In RouteAsync, the TemplateRoute will
delegate to the inner IRouter. This inner router is being set as the
MvcRouteHandler
by the default builder
extensions.
In your case, start by adding an IRouter as your inner target:
public class CustomRoute : ICustomRoute
{
private readonly IMemoryCache cache;
private readonly IRouter target;
private object synclock = new object();
public CustomRoute(IMemoryCache cache, IRouter target)
{
this.cache = cache;
this.target = target;
}
Then update your startup to set that target as the MvcRouteHandler, which has already been set as routes.DefaultHandler:
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.Routes.Add(
new CustomRoute(routes.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IMemoryCache>(),
routes.DefaultHandler));
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
// Uncomment the following line to add a route for porting Web API 2 controllers.
// routes.MapWebApiRoute("DefaultApi", "api/{controller}/{id?}");
});
Finally, update your AsyncRoute method to call the inner IRouter, which would be the MvcRouteHandler. You can use the implementation of that method in TemplateRoute as a guide. I have quickly used this approach and modified your method as follows:
public async Task RouteAsync(RouteContext context)
{
var requestPath = context.HttpContext.Request.Path.Value;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(requestPath) && requestPath[0] == '/')
{
// Trim the leading slash
requestPath = requestPath.Substring(1);
}
// Get the page that matches.
var page = GetPageList()
.Where(x => x.VirtualPath.Equals(requestPath))
.FirstOrDefault();
// If we got back a null value set, that means the URI did not match
if (page == null)
{
return;
}
//Invoke MVC controller/action
var oldRouteData = context.RouteData;
var newRouteData = new RouteData(oldRouteData);
newRouteData.Routers.Add(this.target);
// TODO: You might want to use the page object (from the database) to
// get both the controller and action, and possibly even an area.
// Alternatively, you could create a route for each table and hard-code
// this information.
newRouteData.Values["controller"] = "CustomPage";
newRouteData.Values["action"] = "Details";
// This will be the primary key of the database row.
// It might be an integer or a GUID.
newRouteData.Values["id"] = page.Id;
try
{
context.RouteData = newRouteData;
await this.target.RouteAsync(context);
}
finally
{
// Restore the original values to prevent polluting the route data.
if (!context.IsHandled)
{
context.RouteData = oldRouteData;
}
}
}
Update RC2
Looks like TemplateRoute is no longer around in RC2 aspnet Routing.
I investigated the history, and it was renamed RouteBase in commit 36180ab as part of a bigger refactoring.

Primary reason why that doesn't work is because you aren't doing anything in the RouteAsync method. Another reason is that how routing works in MVC 6 is very different to how the previous MVC routing worked so you're probably be better off writing it from scratch using the source code as reference as there are very few articles that tackle MVC 6 at the moment.
EDIT: #Daniel J.G. answer makes much more sense than this so use that if possible. This might fit someone else's use case so I'm leaving this here.
Here's a very simple IRouter implementation using beta7. This should work but you'll probably need to fill in the gaps. You'll need to remove the page != null and replace it with the code below and replace the controllers and actions:
if (page == null)
{
// Move to next router
return;
}
// TODO: Replace with correct controller
var controllerType = typeof(HomeController);
// TODO: Replace with correct action
var action = nameof(HomeController.Index);
// This is used to locate the razor view
// Remove the trailing "Controller" string
context.RouteData.Values["Controller"] = controllerType.Name.Substring(0, controllerType.Name.Length - 10);
var actionInvoker = context.HttpContext.RequestServices.GetRequiredService<IActionInvokerFactory>();
var descriptor = new ControllerActionDescriptor
{
Name = action,
MethodInfo = controllerType.GetTypeInfo().DeclaredMethods.Single(m => m.Name == action),
ControllerTypeInfo = controllerType.GetTypeInfo(),
// Setup filters
FilterDescriptors = new List<FilterDescriptor>(),
// Setup DI properties
BoundProperties = new List<ParameterDescriptor>(0),
// Setup action arguments
Parameters = new List<ParameterDescriptor>(0),
// Setup route constraints
RouteConstraints = new List<RouteDataActionConstraint>(0),
// This router will work fine without these props set
//ControllerName = "Home",
//DisplayName = "Home",
};
var accessor = context.HttpContext.RequestServices.GetRequiredService<IActionContextAccessor>();
accessor.ActionContext = new ActionContext(context.HttpContext, context.RouteData, descriptor);
var actionInvokerFactory = context.HttpContext.RequestServices.GetRequiredService<IActionInvokerFactory>();
var invoker = actionInvokerFactory.CreateInvoker(accessor.ActionContext);
// Render the page
await invoker.InvokeAsync();
// Don't execute the next IRouter
context.IsHandled = true;
return;
Make sure you add a reference to the Microsoft.Framework.DependencyInjection namespace to resolve the GetRequiredService extension.
After that, register the IRouter as per below:
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
// Run before any default IRouter implementation
// or use .Add to run after all the default IRouter implementations
routes.Routes.Insert(0, routes.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<CustomRoute>());
// .. more code here ...
});
Then just register that in your IOC,
services.AddSingleton<CustomRoute>();
Another 'cleaner' approach would probably be to create a different implementation of IActionSelector.

Invoking WebApi's another action in another controller via reflection ?

We have many services in our system. ( integrating with a mobile company)
So, (for example) we have :
Action1 in Controller1
Action2 in Controller1
...
Action4 in Controller4
Action5 in Controller4
...
Currently, the mobile company calls each action with a single request.
But recently they told us , "can we send you a list of Actions to invoke ? instead of running single action manually each time... ?"
So I tried reflection:
ServicesController :
[HttpGet]
[AllowAnonymous]
public HttpResponseMessage AAA( )
{
Type type = typeof(UsersController);
var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
MethodInfo method = type.GetMethod("Test2", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public);
var t= method.Invoke(instance, new object[] { "royi" });
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, t);
}
And :
UseresController :
[HttpGet]
[AllowAnonymous]
public HttpResponseMessage Test2( string ggg)
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, "hello"+ggg);
}
When I run via fiddler :
http://es.com/api/services/aaa ( GET)
It does work , but (obviously) the Request on the other side is null :
Question
How can I make Test2 run as expected ? am I on the right direction of solving this ? or does webApi has built in mechanism for this sort of thing ?

You better use the ActionInvoker to do that:
public HttpResponseMessage AAA()
{
var ctrlDesc = new HttpControllerDescriptor(this.Configuration, "UsersController", typeof(UsersController));
var actionDesc = new ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor(ctrlDesc, typeof(UsersController).GetMethod("Test2"));
var ctrlCtx = new HttpControllerContext(this.Configuration, this.Request.GetRouteData(), this.Request);
var apiCtrl = ctrlDesc.CreateController(this.Request) as ApiController;
apiCtrl.Request = this.Request;
apiCtrl.Configuration = this.Configuration;
apiCtrl.ControllerContext = ctrlCtx;
ctrlCtx.Controller = apiCtrl;
ctrlCtx.ControllerDescriptor = ctrlDesc;
ctrlCtx.Request = this.Request;
ctrlCtx.RouteData = this.Request.GetRouteData();
var actionContext = new HttpActionContext(ctrlCtx, actionDesc);
actionContext.ActionArguments.Add("ggg", "royi");
var invoker = this.Configuration.Services.GetActionInvoker();
return invoker.InvokeActionAsync(actionContext, CancellationToken.None).Result;
}

Unit testing routing/controller in MVC4

Goal: test that a given url returns a given controller function.
In the process, I've broken into the routing system and I can't figure out how to test routes (or, for that matter, find the controller corresponding to the route :-/).
Sample code, which doesn't work:
[Test]
public void kick_the_tires()
{
var rc = new RouteCollection();
Infrastructure.RouteRegistry.RegisterRoutes(rc);
// get the route corresponding to name.
var got = rc["name"];
var expected = //What? foo is an internal type that can't be instantiated.
Assert.AreEqual(foo, frob);
}
edit: Using the linked blog post from Simon for the stub class.
[TestCase("/", "~/", "Home", "Index")]
[TestCase("/", "api/command", "Other", "command")]
internal void stub_mocker(string apppath, string route, string expected_controller,\
string expected_action)
{
var rc = new RouteCollection();
Infrastructure.RouteRegistry.RegisterRoutes(rc);
var httpmock = new StubHttpContextForRouting(
appPath: apppath,
requestUrl: route);
// this always returns null for everything but the Index case.
var routeData = rc.GetRouteData(httpmock);
var controller = routeData.Values["controller"];
var action = routeData.Values["action"];
Assert.AreEqual(expected_controller, controller);
Assert.AreEqual(expected_action, action);
}

All you are testing right now is if the routes are added to the collection, by accessing it by the route name, and not if the expected route will return given a virtual path. You need to obtain the route data as returned by the RouteCollection with a HttpContext.
Best way would be to use a mock or a stub for the HttpContext (or HttpContextBase) and call the RouteCollection's GetRouteData(HttpContextBase) method and inspect the route data.
There is a good example of this in Brad Wilson's blog:
http://bradwilson.typepad.com/blog/2010/07/testing-routing-and-url-generation-in-aspnet-mvc.html
Edit:You cannot get a controller instance from the RouteData itself. However, RouteData should give you enough information to know which controller will be instantiated. For example, if you have a controller at MyProject.Controllers.HomeController with an action Home, this should hold true in your test (using xUnit and Moq):
// Prepare
var context = new Mock<HttpContextBase>();
var request = new Mock<HttpRequestBase>();
var response = new Mock<HttpResponseBase>();
var session = new Mock<HttpSessionStateBase>();
var server = new Mock<HttpServerUtilityBase>();
context.SetupGet(c => c.Request).Returns(request.Object);
context.SetupGet(c => c.Response).Returns(response.Object);
context.SetupGet(c => c.Session).Returns(session.Object);
context.SetupGet(c => c.Server).Returns(server.Object);
request.SetupGet(r => r.HttpMethod).Returns("GET");
request.SetupGet(r => r.PathInfo).Returns(String.Empty);
request.SetupGet(r => r.AppRelativeCurrentExecutionFilePath).Returns("~/Home");
var expectedHandler = typeof (HomeController).GetMethod("Index", Type.EmptyTypes);
var data = RouteTable.Routes.GetRouteData(context.Object);
Assert.NotNull(data);
var handler = (MethodInfo) data.DataTokens["actionMethod"];
Assert.Equal(expectedHandler, handler);

I've had prety good experience with MVCContrib's Testhelper
Take a look at this test of testhelper.
Saves a lot of hassles around stubbing HttpContext etc.
Also if you are on MVC4, have a look at this Nuget package which is a fork for MVC4.