I am developing an application in asp.net MVC3 and I have the following questions: When should I write an HTTP module and when should I write an action filter?
3 Answers
HttpModule are called before and after the request handler executes. They are intended to enable a developer to intercept, participate, or modify each request. There are 22 available events that can be subscribed to that enables the module to work on the request in various stages of the process. The events are useful for page developers who want to run code when key request pipeline events are raised. They are also useful if you are developing a custom module and you want the module to be invoked for all requests to the pipeline.
Filters are designed to inject logic in between MVC request life cycle. Specifically before and after de action is invoked, as well as, before and after the result is processed. Filters provide users with powerful ways to inspect, analyze, capture and instruments several things going around within MVC projects. As of MVC5, there are 5 types of filters :
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Action
- Result
- Exception
So if you want to intercept, participate, or modify in a specific of the 22 events in the http request pipeline choose the modules. If your logic is is strictly related to the action method you better server overriding one of the following ActionFilterAttribute methods:
- OnActionExecuting
- OnActionExecutted
- OnResultExecuting
- OnResultExecuted
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