Question

I created a custom AuthorizeAttribute which sends users to an error page if they don’t have access to view the controller being requested.

The code that redirects them is as follows:

Protected Overrides Sub HandleUnauthorizedRequest(filterContext As AuthorizationContext)
    Dim result = New ViewResult()
    result.ViewName = "Error"
    result.ViewBag.ErrorMessage = "oops, you are not allowed"
    filterContext.Result = result
End Sub

It redirects them to ~/Shared/Error.vbhtml, just like it should; however, the page only loads my layout and includes the header "Error" but doesn’t not load any content of the error page.

The contents of the error page are as follows:

@ModelType System.Web.Mvc.HandleErrorInfo

@Code
    ViewData("Title") = "Error"
End Code

@ViewBag.ErrorMessage

<h2>
    Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request.
</h2>

Why isn’t it loading the “Sorry, an error occurred…” message and how can I make it do so? Thank you.

Answer 1

It redirects them to ~/Shared/Error.vbhtml, just like it should

No, I suspect this isn’t the case. You probably have some other Error.cshtml or Error.vbhtml view that is being rendered. Search your site for the presence of such file somewhere else. Like for example ~/Views/XXX/Error.vbhtml where XXX is the controller that is currently being executed.

Or you could also explicitly specify which view to be loaded instead of relying on the established probing locations:

result.ViewName = "~/Views/Shared/Error.vbhtml"