Question

Is it possible to decorate the class with;

[Authorize(Roles = "Admin")]

But have it only apply when you build the application in Release mode?

So in debug mode, the authorize is not applied and you can get to the admin pages without the need to log in.

My admin screens do not require any special user information, only whether you are logged in or not.

Answer 1

One way is to create a custom Authorize attribute and then use #if DEBUG like this:

public class SwitchableAuthorizationAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
{
protected override bool AuthorizeCore(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
    bool disableAuthentication = false;

    #if DEBUG
    disableAuthentication = true;
    #endif

    if (disableAuthentication)
        return true;

    return base.AuthorizeCore(httpContext);
}
}

copied from here:
http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2011/07/24/writing-your-own-custom-aspnet-mvc-authorize-attributes