How to make ActionFilter on action method take precedence over same ActionFilter on controller

Question

Since asp.net mvc has changed a lot since November, does anyone have a solution to this question:

Resolve FilterAttributes On Controller And Action

Phil said

Answer 1

A filter can take precedence over another filter by specifing the Order property on each filter. For example...

[MyFilter(Order=2)]
public class MyController : Controller
{
    [MyFilter(Order=1)]
    public ActionResult MyAction()
    {
        //...
    }
}

In this example the filter on the action method would execute before the filer on the controller.

HTH

Answer 2

I found one way to do it by "cheating" a bit with the ordering, inheritance and the AttributeUsage parameter

First, define your ActionFilter for the controller

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class)]
public class FilterController : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public FilterController()
    {
        this.Order = 2;
    }

    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
    {
        if (!filterContext.HttpContext.Items.Contains("WeAlreadyWentThroughThis"))
        {
                // do our thing
            filterContext.HttpContext.Items.Add("WeAlreadyWentThroughThis", "yep");
            base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
        }
    }
}

Then inherit the class for your action attribute

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
public class FilterAction : FilterController
{
    public FilterAction()
    {
        this.Order = 1;
    }
}

It's far from perfect since you have to rely on HttpContext and two classes (though you could use namespaces to name both classes the same). But you get compiler-enforced check of the attribute scope for class or action and you won't forget an order parameter when typing the code.