Should ActionResult perform other tasks too

Question

In Asp.net MVC one is encouraged to derive custom ActionResults, however should these classes handle other tasks unrelated to views, perhaps a EmailActionResult would render a view then send an email. What is best practice for the class ActionResult, is it only view specific? I want to keep things DRY too. Should the sending of the email be factored into a service class? perhaps using a filter would work. what are your thoughts?

Answer 1

No.

The ActionResult should be the Result of the Action, it should not also perform the action.

In your specific case, you should have refactor the emailsending into a service class and then use the ActionResult to indicate what exactly happened.

I am hard pressed to imagine a "simple" EmailActionResult that is reusable enough to handle different scenarios.

Answer 2

I agree. It should be the result and not perform the action.