c# hide Attribute in derived Class

Question

Hi, I have a base class with an attribute and I want to hide it in a derived class. Is there any way to do this other than using reflection?

[Authorize(Roles = "User,Admin,Customs")]
public abstract class ApplicationController : Controller
{
}

// hide the Authorize attribute
public class ErrorController : ApplicationController
{
}

Answer 1

If it was a method/prop, you could re-declare (new) the member without the offending attribute. I don't know of a way with class-level attributes.

public new SomeType Foo() { return base.Foo(); }

Answer 2

You can specify the 'AttributeUage' attribute on your Attribute class, like this:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, Inherited=false)]
public class AuthorizeAttribute : Attribute
{
}

Then, classes that derive from the class where you've applied the attribute, will not inherit the attribute.

Ow, now I realize that the Authorize attribute is not a custom attribute.

Answer 3

You could override the AuthorizeAttribute with your own class and specify it to not be inherited.

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, Inherited=false)]
public class NonInheritedAuthorizeAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
{
    // Constructors, etc.
}

Now you can specify which class to use, as long as you own ApplicationController.