ASP.NET MVC URl Routing: How to deal with ?Action=Test parameter

Question

I am required to implement a simple webapp for a online competition for a simple game. I need to handle a Get request and respond to that.

I thought, let's just use a bare ASP.Net MVC app, and let it handle the URL.

Problem is, the URL I need to handle is :

 http://myDomain.com/bot/?Action=DoThis&Foo=Bar

I tried:

public ActionResult Index(string Action, string Foo)
    {
        if (Action == "DoThis")
        {
            return Content("Done");
        }
        else
        {
            return Content(Action);
        }
    }

Problem is, the string Action always gets set as the action name of the route. I always get:

Action == "Index"

It looks like ASP.Net MVC overrides the Action parameter input, and uses the actual ASP.Net MVC Action.

Since I cannot change the format of the URL that I need to handle: is there a way to retrieve the parameter correctly?

Answer 1

Maybe write an HttpModule which renames the action querystring parameter. HttpModules run before MVC gets a hold of the request.

Here's an quick and UGLY example. Ugly because I don't like the way I am replacing the parameter name, but you get the idea.

public class SeoModule : IHttpModule
{
    public void Dispose()
    { }

    public void Init(HttpApplication context)
    {
        context.BeginRequest += OnBeginRequest;
    }

    private void OnBeginRequest(object source, EventArgs e)
    {
        var application = (HttpApplication)source;
        HttpContext context = application.Context;

        if (context.Request.Url.Query.ToLower().Contains("action=")) {
            context.RewritePath(context.Request.Url.ToString().Replace("action=", "actionx="));
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Grab the action from the QueryString, the old school way:

 string Action = Request.QueryString["Action"];

Then you can run a case/if statements on it

public ActionResult Index(string Foo)
{
    string Action = Request.QueryString["Action"];
    if (Action == "DoThis")
    {
        return Content("Done");
    }
    else
    {
        return Content(Action);
    }
}

It's one extra line, but it's a very simple solution with little overhead.

Answer 3

I also saw this SO question. It might work for Action I don't know.

Answer 4

How about using plain old ASP.Net? ASP.NET MVC doesnt help in your situation. It is actually in your way.