Asp.Net MVC3 Redirect

Question

I have an action like shown below. In GetAvailableBookList, I get the list and if there is not any available book redirect to a message page. But in action part code continues to execute and gets an exception and I find myself in error page. I don't want to use return RedirectToAction or something like that because there are a lot of places where we use this redirect logic in our application.

    public ActionResult ActionName()
    {
        List<BookType> bookList = GetAvailableBookList();
        // some code
        return View("RelatedView");
    }

    private List<BookType> GetAvailableBookList()
    {
        ....
        list  = GetList();
        if(list.Count == 0)
        {
            System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response.Redirect(messagePageUrl, true);
        }
        else return list;
    }

My opinion would be that you do not do a redirect at the GetAvailableBookList() level but rather at the ActionResult ActionName() level. Since GetAvailableBookList() gets called from various areas as you have mentioned. — Geovani Martinez
– Geovani Martinez, Commented May 5, 2011 at 14:26
Then I will repeat Redirect in each Action that I do not want to do. It is a specific example. In business part we do this redirect several times for several purposes. For example, while getting a list I may want to check the time if user can see this list now. — xesulius
– xesulius, Commented May 5, 2011 at 14:41

Talljoe · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 15:10:34Z

Unfortunately, Response.Redirect() isn't really friendly with ASP.NET MVC. My rule of thumb is if it comes from HttpContext I don't want to touch it in the controller (of course there are many exceptions to that rule) -- especially since it improves testability.

My suggestion is to use RedirectToAction, but since you don't want to repeat code you can do it in such a way that you don't have to repeat code (although in this case I don't see a problem with repeating code).

public ActionResult LoadBookListAndContinue(
  Func<List<BookType>, ActionResult> continuation)
{
   var list = LoadBooklist();
   if(list.Any())
   {
     return action(continuation); 
   }
   return new RedirectResult(messagePageUrl);
}


// in your controller
public ActionResult ActionName()
{
  return LoadBookListAndContinue(
    list => {
      // some code
      return View("RelatedView");
    });
}

Is it pretty? No, but it works better than the Redirect exception.

Tomas McGuinness · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 14:13:48Z

0

Use

return RedirectToAction("NoListAvailable");

if you have a specific action you would like to execute. The NoListAvailable action can return a view indicating the problem.

Alternatively, you could return the view directly

return View("NoListAvailable");

answered May 5, 2011 at 14:13

Tomas McGuinness

7,6793 gold badges30 silver badges40 bronze badges

6 Comments

Talljoe Over a year ago

He said he didn't want to do that.

xesulius Over a year ago

I don't want to return anything as I stated in the question, I just want to do a classical redirect.

Tomas McGuinness Over a year ago

I don't honestly see the difference between RedirectToAction and a classical Redirect. One keeps with the MVC pattern and the other breaks it. Do you really need a Response.Redirect()?

xesulius Over a year ago

In an action, you have to return something. I want to break the action flow without return something.

Tomas McGuinness Over a year ago

An action just has to return a view. When you use a Redirect() you are pointing the browser to another resource, typically a HTML page, which is what a View is. Am I missing something?

|

rciq · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 14:16:48Z

0

The exception you are getting is probably ThreadAbortException and this is something you cannot avoid unless you allow the thread to continue (2nd argument in Response.Redirect).

On a side note your current solution is generally flawed. You should use RedirectToAction in each action when your method returns an empty list.

answered May 5, 2011 at 14:16

rciq

1,31010 silver badges10 bronze badges

1 Comment

xesulius Over a year ago

The exception is because in the code for example I use something like that: list[0] and since list is null I get exception

resul · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 18:17:12Z

0

Throwing a specific exception and redirect where you catch it may be solution

answered May 5, 2011 at 18:17

resul

112 bronze badges

Comments

Сергей Никитин · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-14 09:50:27Z

0

Try to write

System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response.Redirect(messagePageUrl, false);

answered Feb 14, 2013 at 9:50

Сергей Никитин

7859 silver badges17 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Asp.Net MVC3 Redirect

5 Answers 5

Comments

6 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

Comments

6 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related