Filters in ASP.NET MVC

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Filters in ASP.NET MVC Application

In this article, I am going to give you an overview of Filters in the ASP.NET MVC Application. Filters are one of the most important concepts in ASP.NET MVC Application and as a developer, you should be aware of this concept. So, from this and in few upcoming articles I am going to discuss ASP.NET MVC Filters in Detail. As part of this article, we are going to discuss the following pointers.

1. What are the Filters in ASP.NET MVC?
2. Why do we need Filters in MVC?
3. What are the different types of MVC Filters?
4. Different ways to configure ASP.NET MVC Filters
5. What is the need for Custom Filters in the MVC application?

What are Filters in ASP.NET MVC Application?

As of now, we discussed when a client makes a request, then that request comes to the Routing Engine and then the Routing Engine navigates that Request to the Controller. The controller then selects the appropriate action method to execute. So, it is the Controller action method that is going to handle the incoming request and send the response back to the client who initially made the request as shown in the below image.

But what will you do, if you want to execute some code or logic either before or after the action method executed as shown in the below image?

If that is your requirement then you need to use Filters in the ASP.NET MVC application. The Filters in ASP.NET MVC Framework are the attribute that allows us to inject some logic or code which is going to be executed either before or after an action method is invoked.

Why do we need to use Filters in the ASP.NET MVC Applications?

Basically, ASP.NET MVC Filters are used to perform the following common functionalities in your application.

1. Caching
2. Logging
3. Error Handling
4. Authentication and Authorization, etc.

What are the Different Types of Filters available in ASP.NET MVC Framework?

The ASP.NET MVC 5 framework provides five different types of Filters. They are as follows

1. Authentication Filter (Introduced in MVC 5)
2. Authorization Filter
3. Action Filter
4. Result Filter
5. Exception Filter

Note: This is also the order of the execution of Filters if more than one filter is applied. But the point that you need to remember is the Exception Filter can be executed at any point in time when there is an unhandled exception occurred in your application.

What are the Predefined Filters?

Some of the filters are already built by the ASP.NET MVC framework and they are ready to be used. For example

1. Authorize
2. ValidateInput
3. HandleError
4. RequireHttps
5. OutputCache, etc

Can we Create Custom Filters in MVC?

Yes, we can create custom filters in MVC. If the built-in filters do not serve our purpose then we can create our own custom filter as per our business requirements. We can create the Custom Filter for all the five categories (Authentication Filter, Authorization Filter, Action Filter, Result Filter, and Exception Filter) of Filters.

Where we can configure filters in ASP.NET MVC?

We can configure the filters at three different levels of our application. They are as follows

1. Global Level (Applicable to all controllers and all action methods)
2. Controller Level (Applicable to all the action methods of the particular controller)
3. Action Level (Applicable to the specific action methods)

Configuring Filters at Global Level in ASP.NET MVC:

Here you need to register the Filter within the Application_Start() method of Global.asax.cs file as shown below. As we know this is the first method of our application which is going to be executed when the application starts. When you register a filter at the Global level, then it is applicable to all the Action Methods of all the Controllers of your MVC application.

protected void Application_Start()
{
    FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
}

Configuring Filters at Controller Level in ASP.NET MVC:

Here you need to apply the filter at the top of the controller name as shown below. When you apply the filter at the Controller level, then it is applicable to all the action methods of that controller only.

[Authorize(Roles = "Admin")]
public class AdminController : Controller
{
    //Code
}

Configuring Filters at Action Level in ASP.NET MVC:

Here you need to apply the filter on the top of the action method name as shown below. When you apply the filter to a particular action method, then it is only applicable to that particular action method.

public class UserController : Controller
{
    [Authorize(Users = "User1,User2")]
    public ActionResult LinkToLogin(string provider)
    {
        // Code
        return View();
    }
}

Role and Responsibility of MVC Filters:

As we already discussed we have five types of Filters (Authentication Filter, Authorization Filter, Action Filter, Result Filter, and Exception Filter) in the ASP.NET MVC application. Let us discuss the overview of each filter. Here we only discuss the purpose and when that filter is going to be executed and from our next article onwards we will discuss each filter in detail.

Authentication Filter in ASP.NET MVC:

The Authentication filter is the first filter that is going to be executed before executing any other filter or action method. This filter checks that the user from where the request is coming is a valid user or not. The Authentication filters in ASP.NET MVC Framework implements the IAuthenticationFilter interface. This filter is introduced with ASP.NET MVC5. The IAuthenticationFilter interface is used to create a Custom Authentication filter. The definition of the IAuthenticationFilter interface is given below-

As of now, there is no in-built Authentication Filter provided ASP.NET MVC Framework. If you want to create Custom Authentication Filter then you need to implement the IAuthenticationFilter interface. In a later article, we will discuss how to Create Custom Authentication Filters with real-time examples.

Authorization Filters in ASP.NET MVC

The Authorization Filters are executed after the Authentication Filter. This filter is used to check whether the user has the right to access a particular resource or page. The built-in AuthorizeAttribute and RequireHttpsAttribute are examples of Authorization Filters. The Authorization Filters in ASP.NET MVC Framework implements the IAuthorizationFilter interface. The definition of the IAuthorizationFilter interface is given below.

If you want to create a Custom Authorization Filter then you need to implement the IAuthorizationFilter interface. We will discuss Authorization Filters with real-time examples in our upcoming articles.

Action Filters in ASP.NET MVC:

The Action Filters in ASP.NET MVC Application will be executed before the action method starts executing or after the action has been executed. So, if you want to execute some custom logic that is going to be executed before or after an action method is executed, then you need to use the Action Filters in MVC applications. The definition of the IActionFilter interface is given below.

The Action filters implement the IActionFilter interface that has two methods OnActionExecuting and OnActionExecuted. If you want to execute the Custom Logic before the action method starts executing, then you need to implement the OnActionExecuting method and if you want to write custom logic after the action method is executed, then you need to implement the OnActionExecuted method. We will discuss Action Filters in MVC with real-time examples in our upcoming articles.

Result Filters in ASP.NET MVC:

The Result filters in the ASP.NET MVC application are executed before or after generating the result for an action. Action Result type can be ViewResult, PartialViewResult, RedirectToRouteResult, RedirectResult, ContentResult, JsonResult, FileResult and EmptyResult which derives from the ActionResult abstract class. Result filters are called after the Action filters. The in-built OutputCacheAttribute is an example of Result Filters. The Result Filters in MVC implements the IResultFilter interface. The definition of the IResultFilter interface is given below.

The Result filters implement the IResultFilter interface that has two methods OnResultExecuting and OnResultExecuted. If you want to execute the Custom Logic before generating the result, then you need to implement the OnResultExecuting method and if you want to write custom logic after generating the result, then you need to implement the OnResultExecuted method. If you want to create a Custom Result Filter then you need to implement the IResultFilter interface. We will discuss Result Filters in detail with real-time examples in our upcoming articles.

Exception Filters in ASP.NET MVC:

The Exception filters are executed when there is an unhandled exception occurs during either the execution of actions or filters. The in-built HandleErrorAttribute is an example of Exception Filters. The IExceptionFilter interface is used to create a Custom Exception Filter which provides the OnException method which will be executed when there is an unhandled exception occurs during the actions or filters execution. The definition of IExceptionFilter is given below.

In the next article, I am going to discuss Exception Filters in ASP.NET MVC application with one real-time example. In this article, I try to give you an overview of ASP.NET MVC Filters and I hope you enjoy this MVC Filters article.