Get controller and action name from within controller?

For our web application I need to save the order of the fetched and displayed items depending on the view - or to be precise - the controller and action that generated the view (and the user id of course, but that's not the point here).

Instead of just giving an identifier myself in each controller action (in order to use it for some view-dependant sorting of DB outputs), I thought that it would be safer and easier to create this identifier automatically from the controller and action method it gets called from.

How can I get the name of the controller and action from within the action method in a controller? Or do I need reflection for that?

string actionName = this.ControllerContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
string controllerName = this.ControllerContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();

Here are some extension methods for getting that information (it also includes the ID):

public static class HtmlRequestHelper
{
    public static string Id(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper)
    {
        var routeValues = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values;

        if (routeValues.ContainsKey("id"))
            return (string)routeValues["id"];
        else if (HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString.AllKeys.Contains("id"))
            return HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["id"];

        return string.Empty;
    }

    public static string Controller(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper)
    {
        var routeValues = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values;

        if (routeValues.ContainsKey("controller"))
            return (string)routeValues["controller"];

        return string.Empty;
    }

    public static string Action(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper)
    {
        var routeValues = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values;

        if (routeValues.ContainsKey("action"))
            return (string)routeValues["action"];

        return string.Empty;
    }
}

Usage:

@Html.Controller();
@Html.Action();
@Html.Id();

Might be useful. I needed the action in the constructor of the controller, and it appears at this point of the MVC lifecycle, this hasn't initialized, and ControllerContext = null. Instead of delving into the MVC lifecycle and finding the appropriate function name to override, I just found the action in the RequestContext.RouteData.

But in order to do so, as with any HttpContext related uses in the constructor, you have to specify the full namespace, because this.HttpContext also hasn't been initialized. Luckily, it appears System.Web.HttpContext.Current is static.

// controller constructor
public MyController() {
    // grab action from RequestContext
    string action = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");

    // grab session (another example of using System.Web.HttpContext static reference)
    string sessionTest = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session["test"] as string
}

NOTE: likely not the most supported way to access all properties in HttpContext, but for RequestContext and Session it appears to work fine in my application.

var routeValues = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values;
if (routeValues != null) 
{
    if (routeValues.ContainsKey("action"))
    {
        var actionName = routeValues["action"].ToString();
                }
    if (routeValues.ContainsKey("controller"))
    {
        var controllerName = routeValues["controller"].ToString();
    }
}

 @this.ViewContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();

This is what I have so far:

var actionName = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName;
var controllerName = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName;

Here is the simplest and most practical answer to getting a name:

var actionName = RouteData.Values["action"];
var controllerName = RouteData.Values["controller"];

Or

string actionName = RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
string controllerName = RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString();

Code above tests with asp.net mvc 5.

This seems to work nicely for me (so far), also works if you are using attribute routing.

public class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected string CurrentAction { get; private set; }
    protected string CurrentController { get; private set; }
    
    protected override void Initialize(RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        this.PopulateControllerActionInfo(requestContext);
    }
    
    private void PopulateControllerActionInfo(RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        RouteData routedata = requestContext.RouteData;

        object routes;
         
        if (routedata.Values.TryGetValue("MS_DirectRouteMatches", out routes))
        {
            routedata = (routes as List<RouteData>)?.FirstOrDefault();
        }
        
        if (routedata == null)
            return;

        Func<string, string> getValue = (s) =>
        {
            object o;
            return routedata.Values.TryGetValue(s, out o) ? o.ToString() : String.Empty;
        };
        
        this.CurrentAction = getValue("action");
        this.CurrentController = getValue("controller");
    }
}

Add this to your base controller inside GetDefaults() method

    protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
         GetDefaults();
         base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);
    }

    private void GetDefaults()
    {
    var actionName = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName;
    var controllerName = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName;
    }

Implement your controllers to Basecontroller

Add a partial view _Breadcrumb.cshtml and add it in all required pages with @Html.Partial("_Breadcrumb")

_Breadcrumb.cshtml

<span>
    <a href="../@ViewData["controllerName"]">
        @ViewData["controllerName"]
    </a> > @ViewData["actionName"]
</span>

You can get controller name or action name from action like any variable. They are just special (controller and action) and already defined so you do not need to do anything special to get them except telling you need them.

public string Index(string controller,string action)
   {
     var names=string.Format("Controller : {0}, Action: {1}",controller,action);
     return names;
   }

Or you can include controller , action in your models to get two of them and your custom data.

public class DtoModel
    {
        public string Action { get; set; }
        public string Controller { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }

public string Index(DtoModel baseModel)
    {
        var names=string.Format("Controller : {0}, Action: {1}",baseModel.Controller,baseModel.Action);
        return names;
    }

To remove need for ToString() call use

string actionName = ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
string controllerName = ControllerContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("controller");

Try this code

add this override method to controller

protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext actionExecutingContext)
{
   var actionName = actionExecutingContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName;
   var controllerName = actionExecutingContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName;
   base.OnActionExecuting(actionExecutingContext);
}

Why not having something simpler?

Just call Request.Path, it will return a String Separated by the "/"

and then you can use .Split('/')[1] to get the Controller Name.