Question

I have a User entity, and in various views, I want to create links to a user home page basically. This functionality should be available in different controllers, so I can easily redirect to the user’s home page. Each user in my site has a role ; for example reader, writer, editor, manager and admin. Ideally, I want to try to achieve something like this:

In a controller, for example

public ActionResult SomeThingHere() {
    return View(User.GetHomePage());
//OR 
    return RedirectToROute(User.GetHomePage());
}

in a View, I also want to use the same functionality, for example:

<%= Html.ActionLink("Link to home", user.GetHomePage() %>

Is it possible to achieve such a design in MVC? If so , how should I go about it?

I currently use a method like this, but it is only in one controller at the moment. Now I need to use the same code somewhere else and I am trying to figure out how I could refractor this and avoid repeating myself?

....
private ActionResult GetHomePage(User user){
    if (user.IsInRole(Role.Admin))
        return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home", new { area = "Admin" });

    if (user.IsInRole(Role.Editor))
        // Managers also go to editor home page
        return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home", new {area = "Editor"});

    if (user.IsInRole(Role.Reader))
        // Writer and reader share the same home page
        return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home", new { area = "Reader" });

    return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
}
...

Answer 1

Well I finally came up with a design that seems to work. I have written an controller extension,
with a GetHomePage Method. This extension can also be used in your views. Here is how I did It:

public static class UserHelperExtension    {
    public static string GetHomePage(this ControllerBase controller, User user) {
        return = "http://" + controller.ControllerContext
                            .HttpContext.Request
                            .ServerVariables["HTTP_HOST"] + "/"
                           + GetHomePage(user);
    }

    //need this for views
    public static string GetHomePage(string httphost, User user) {
        return  = "http://" + httphost + "/" + GetHomePage(user});
    }

    private static string GetHomePage(User user) {
        if (user.IsInRole(Role.Admin))
            return "/Admin/Home/Index";
        if (user.IsInRole(Role.Editor))
            return "/Editor/Home/Index";
        if (user.IsInRole(Role.Reader))
            return "/Reader/Home/Index";
        return "/Home/Index";
    }
}

The action method in the controller looks like this:

    using Extensions;
...
public ActionResult SomethingHere() {
    return Redirect(this.GetHomePage(user));
}
...

In the view I have this:

...
<%@ Import Namespace="Extensions"%>
<%=UserHelperExtension.GetHomePage(Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_HOST"], user)%>
...

The advantage is that I can easily use this “GetHomePage” method in various controllers,
or views thoughout my application, and the logic is in one place. The disadvantage is that
I would have preferred to have it more type safe. For example, in my orignal tests, I had access to RouteValues collection:

public void User_should_redirect_to_role_home(Role role,
    string area, string controller, string action) {
...
var result = (RedirectToRouteResult)userController.SomeThingHere();
    Assert.That(result.RouteValues["area"], 
        Is.EqualTo(area).IgnoreCase);
    Assert.That(result.RouteValues["controller"], 
        Is.EqualTo(controller).IgnoreCase);
    Assert.That(result.RouteValues["action"], 
        Is.EqualTo(action).IgnoreCase);
...

}

But now that I am using a string so it is not type safe, and checking the RedirectResult.Url.

...
var result = (RedirectResult) userController.SomethingHere();
Assert.That(result.Url.EndsWith("/" + area + "/" + controller + "/" + action), 
    Is.True);
...