How to detect if an aspx page was called from Server.Execute?

Question

I have the following example page structure:

• Webpage.aspx
• Script.aspx

If I call Server.Execute("Script.aspx") from Webpage.aspx, how can I detect in Script.aspx that it was called from Webpage.aspx and not directly from a web browser?

I've tried checking the Referrer but this only seems to return domain and not the script.

I'm using ASP.NET Web Forms on .NET 3.5

Answer 1

At least you can tell if the request is local through Request.IsLocal .

Answer 2

You could pass a querystring parameter to Script.aspx (which will help you identify that it was called from WebPage.aspx).

Server.Execute("script.aspx?xFrom=webPage.aspx")

EDIT: I think the Request should have some value in it for you to know that it is running webpage.aspx.

EDIT2: Request.Url?

Answer 3

Since Server.Execute runs the new page with the same context as the original page, all the properties of Request should still reflect the original request to Webpage.aspx (except for CurrentExecutionFilePath, which hopefully contains "/Script.aspx"). Request.Path should contain "/Webpage.aspx", while Request.Url will give the full Uri object if you need to see the domain or querystring.

You can also add values to Context.Items before calling Server.Execute and read them in Script.aspx

Answer 4

HttpRequest.FilePath will return the URL to the page requested, which you can then do a substring match on for "Script.aspx".

(Take this answer with a huge grain of salt though, my .Net is pretty poor.)

Answer 5

In Script.aspx.cs, you can simply check the Request.Path in comparison to the current execution path.

if ( Request.CurrentExecutionFilePath == Request.Path ) 
{
   //This has been called from a web browser
} else {
   //This has been executed from the file Request.Path
}

Why?

Portions of the request are passed on untouched when you call the Server.Execute. Thus, if you were to look at the value of Request.Path from your Script.aspx.cs after using a Server.Execute in your Webpage.aspx.cs, you will see it has a value of "/Webpage.aspx".

However, if a web browser were to access Script.aspx directly, the value of Request.Path from Script.aspx.cs will result in "/Script.aspx". The currentExecutionPath will always yield the currently executed script, so comparing the two will give the desired result.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Assuming you don't have any IHttpHandler funniness, you can check if HttpContext.PreviousHandler is not null. However, since there is a million (well, several) reasons that PreviousHandler could be set, I'd go with stevemegson's recommendation of using HttpContext.Items before calling Server.Execute.