Getting All Controllers and Actions names in C#

Question

Is it possible to list the names of all controllers and their actions programmatically?

I want to implement database driven security for each controller and action. As a developer, I know all controllers and actions and can add them to a database table, but is there any way to add them automatically?

Answer 1

You can use reflection to find all Controllers in the current assembly, and then find their public methods that are not decorated with the NonAction attribute.

Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

asm.GetTypes()
    .Where(type=> typeof(Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type)) //filter controllers
    .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods())
    .Where(method => method.IsPublic && ! method.IsDefined(typeof(NonActionAttribute)));

Answer 2

The following will extract controllers, actions, attributes and return types:

Assembly asm = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(MyWebDll.MvcApplication));

var controlleractionlist = asm.GetTypes()
        .Where(type=> typeof(System.Web.Mvc.Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type))
        .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public))
        .Where(m => !m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof( System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute), true).Any())
        .Select(x => new {Controller = x.DeclaringType.Name, Action = x.Name, ReturnType = x.ReturnType.Name, Attributes = String.Join(",", x.GetCustomAttributes().Select(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute",""))) })
        .OrderBy(x=>x.Controller).ThenBy(x => x.Action).ToList();

If you run this code in linqpad for instance and call

controlleractionlist.Dump();

you get the following output:

Answer 3

I was looking for a way to get Area, Controller and Action and for this I manage to change a little the methods you post here, so if anyone is looking for a way to get the AREA here is my ugly method (which I save to an xml):

 public static void GetMenuXml()
        {
       var projectName = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName.Split(',')[0];

        Assembly asm = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(MvcApplication));

        var model = asm.GetTypes().
            SelectMany(t => t.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public))
            .Where(d => d.ReturnType.Name == "ActionResult").Select(n => new MyMenuModel()
            {
                Controller = n.DeclaringType?.Name.Replace("Controller", ""),
                Action = n.Name,
                ReturnType = n.ReturnType.Name,
                Attributes = string.Join(",", n.GetCustomAttributes().Select(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute", ""))),
                Area = n.DeclaringType.Namespace.ToString().Replace(projectName + ".", "").Replace("Areas.", "").Replace(".Controllers", "").Replace("Controllers", "")
            });

        SaveData(model.ToList());
    }

Edit:

//assuming that the namespace is ProjectName.Areas.Admin.Controllers

 Area=n.DeclaringType.Namespace.Split('.').Reverse().Skip(1).First()

Answer 4

Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(sAssemblyFileName)
IEnumerable<Type> types = assembly.GetTypes().Where(type => typeof(Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type)).OrderBy(x => x.Name);
foreach (Type cls in types)
{
      list.Add(cls.Name.Replace("Controller", ""));
      IEnumerable<MemberInfo> memberInfo = cls.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public).Where(m => !m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute), true).Any()).OrderBy(x => x.Name);
      foreach (MemberInfo method in memberInfo)
      {
           if (method.ReflectedType.IsPublic && !method.IsDefined(typeof(NonActionAttribute)))
           {
                  list.Add("\t" + method.Name.ToString());
           }
      }
}

Answer 5

var result = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
            .GetTypes()
            .Where(type => typeof(ApiController).IsAssignableFrom(type))
            .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public))
            .Where(m => !m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute), true).Any())
            .GroupBy(x => x.DeclaringType.Name)
            .Select(x => new { Controller = x.Key, Actions = x.Select(s => s.Name).ToList() })
            .ToList();

Answer 6

Use Reflection, enumerate all types inside the assembly and filter classes inherited from System.Web.MVC.Controller, than list public methods of this types as actions

Answer 7

@decastro answer is good. I add this filter to return only public actions those have been declared by the developer.

        var asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        var methods = asm.GetTypes()
            .Where(type => typeof(Controller)
                .IsAssignableFrom(type))
            .SelectMany(type => type.GetMethods())
            .Where(method => method.IsPublic 
                && !method.IsDefined(typeof(NonActionAttribute))
                && (
                    method.ReturnType==typeof(ActionResult) ||
                    method.ReturnType == typeof(Task<ActionResult>) ||
                    method.ReturnType == typeof(String) ||
                    //method.ReturnType == typeof(IHttpResult) ||
                    )
                )
            .Select(m=>m.Name);

Answer 8

Or, to whittle away at @dcastro 's idea and just get the controllers:

Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
.GetTypes()
.Where(type => typeof(Controller).IsAssignableFrom(type))