Difference between HttpContext.Current and Controller.Context in MVC ASP.NET

Question

Hi,

I am working on an MVC ASP .NET application. I am relatively new to both.

In a controller I am trying to get the current log on user, for which there seem to be two ways of doing this:

System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name

Or

HttpContext.User.Identity.Name

What is the difference between these? As far as a I can tell within the MVC framework the controller has the current HttpContext stored as a property so these methods are identical. Is that correct?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, they will usually be identical. However, if you're working with additional threads, they will not be; System.Web.HttpContext.Current is threadstatic.

Answer 2

The context provided by the controller (not the static HttpContext.Current) is mockable. If you're interested in unit-testing your code, it's generally far easier to create a mock ControllerContext and set it on the Controller than it is to go through HttpContext.Current. Otherwise ControllerContext.HttpContext points to the same data as HttpContext.Current.