How to install an action filter in all actions in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

Is there a way to have an action filter, like

public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute {
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext context) {
    ...

be automatically applied to all actions in a web site?

Answer 1

I don't believe there is an out-of-the-box way to do this. The easiest thing to do for simple sites is just apply the filter at the Controller level. This is pretty common, and generally it's a good idea to have your own base controller class in case things like this crop up where you want to propagate it to all your controllers. E.g.:

[MyActionFilter]
public class MyBaseController : Controller
{
  ...
}

public class HomeController : MyBaseController
{
  ...
}

That being said, here is a blog post showing how you can achieve application wide action filters. Looks like a small amount of work, but perhaps you can use this technique.

Answer 2

1. You can apply it to an entire controller class to have it affect all actions on a controller.
2. You can apply it to a base controller class and have all your controllers inherit from that controller, thus getting the effect of applying the filter to all controllers.
3. You can use a base controller class and override the OnActionExecuting method directly on the controller which is probably more appropriate than using a filter if your intent is to apply your filter code on all actions across the board.

Answer 3

Where NewlyCreatedActionFilter is the ActionFilter you're creating, obviously. :)

[NewlyCreatedActionFilter]
public class Basecontroller : Controller
{
  ...
}

public class HomeController : BaseController
{
  ...
}

public class AccountController : BaseController
{
  ...
}

Both of these controller classes would inherit from BaseController, so the NewlyCreatedActionFilter filter is applied to all.