Question

I’d like to use a class extending Controller as the default base type for controllers in my project, as opposed to using Controller itself. So, I would be doing this:

public class FooController : MyBaseController

Is there a way I can enforce this, so that people cannot create controllers which extend Controller directly?

Answer 1

However I prefer the unit testing approach above here is another one by using a custom controller factory.

public class MyControllerFactory<T> : DefaultControllerFactory where T : Controller
{
    #region Overrides of DefaultControllerFactory

    protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType)
    {
        if (!typeof(T).IsAssignableFrom(controllerType))
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }

        return base.GetControllerInstance(requestContext, controllerType);
    }

    #endregion
}

You can set it up in the application start method of your Global.asax like this:

ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(new MyControllerFactory<MyBaseController>());

This of course causes a runtime exception when not deriving from MyBaseController which may not be suitable in your current scenario.