How can I tell if my controller action is being called from another controller action?

Question

Is there any easy way to distinguish between an ASP.NET MVC controller action being hit "directly" due to a client web browser request, and being hit by virtue of a Controller.RedirectToAction call or a RedirectToRoute result?

Answer 1

Request.ServerVariables["http_referrer"] would be empty if is the action is hit from a redirect to action, I think. Otherwise it would be the URL that corresponds to the action method visited "directly".

Kindness,

Dan

Answer 2

You may have the option of adding a parameter to your Action method that allows you to pass in a value specifying whether it's a Controller.RedirectToAction, a RedirectToRoute, or a client browser request. Couple this with some server variable checks and you may be able to come up with something that works most of the time.

public ActionResult MyAction(string source)
{
    if (source == "")
    {
        // client browser request
    }
    else if (source == "redirectToAction")
    {
        // redirect to action
    }
    else if (source == "redirectToRoute")
    {
        // redirect to route
    }
}

Answer 3

Alternatively, put a value in TempData

public class SomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult SomeAction()
    {
        // ... do stuff ...
        TempData["SomeKey"] = "SomeController.SomeAction";
        return RedirectToAction("SomeOtherAction", "SomeOtherController");
    }
}

public class SomeOtherController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult SomeOtherAction()
    {
        if (TempData.ContainsKey("SomeKey"))
        {
            // ... do stuff ...
        }
        // etc...
    }
}

(From Craig Stuntz)