ASP.NET MVC initialize Controller and call action programatically

Question

I am building a scheduled jobs controller - these jobs will call a Controller and an Action capturing the result. I would rather have all this happen on the backend and not involve http calls.

Its kind of like what happens with Unit testing - for instance:

var controller = new TestController();
var result = controller.Index("TestParameter") as ViewResult;

The issue is in this example the controller and action are not dynamic, does anyone know how to initialize a controller and call an action with the name of the controller and action as string paramater? Such as -

public ActionResult run(string controllerName, string actionName)
{
    var controller = new Controller(controllerName);
    var result = controller.action(actionName).("TestParameter") as ViewResult;
    return Content(result);
}

A controller's purpose is to handle browser requests. Are you calling an MVC controller from another class? — mellis481
– mellis481, Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 15:25
Yes I want to call many controllers and actions from another single controller action such as the run action above. — Harleyz
– Harleyz, Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 15:31
The only thing that should be calling an MVC controller is the browser. — mellis481
– mellis481, Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 15:45
Your controller action handles a browser event. If you need your controller to execute something during that action, call another non-controller class. You should probably read up on MVC. — mellis481
– mellis481, Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 20:07
Oh well if it's the easiest solution. By all means, ignore how the MVC framework is designed. — mellis481
– mellis481, Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 16:02

haim770 · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-11 10:24:29Z

15

Use the ControllerFactory along with the ActionDescriptor to dynamically execute the action:

public ActionResult Run(string controllerName, string actionName)
{
    // get the controller
    var ctrlFactory = ControllerBuilder.Current.GetControllerFactory();
    var ctrl = ctrlFactory.CreateController(this.Request.RequestContext, controllerName) as Controller;
    var ctrlContext = new ControllerContext(this.Request.RequestContext, ctrl);
    var ctrlDesc = new ReflectedControllerDescriptor(ctrl.GetType());

    // get the action
    var actionDesc = ctrlDesc.FindAction(ctrlContext, actionName);

    // execute
    var result = actionDesc.Execute(ctrlContext, new Dictionary<string, object>
    {
        { "parameterName", "TestParameter" }
    }) as ActionResult;

    // return the other action result as the current action result
    return result;
}

See MSDN

edited Mar 11, 2015 at 10:24

answered Mar 10, 2015 at 15:44

haim770

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1 Comment

Harleyz Over a year ago

I'd like to say, from the code above, I was able to build the Scheduled Jobs functionality into my application, and it has been running like a charm for many a months :) We can on the fly schedule any action to run on schedule, I think though thats not the way MVC was designed, this is a great solution. Cheers @haim770!

Cody Gray · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-23 12:39:13Z

-3

I am not sure where is your real problem lies—do you want to test controller/action or do you want to test functionality of your jobs?

If you need to test controller/action it would involve HttpContext.
If you need to test your job functionality better way to separate that in your service / repository layer and you can do testing with using repository pattern.

edited Aug 23, 2017 at 12:39

Cody Gray♦

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answered Mar 10, 2015 at 17:28

nikudale

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