Question

public ActionResult Index(int ehrId, int? page)
{
    EHR ehr = ehrRepository.FindById(ehrId);
    if (ehr.UserName != User.Identity.Name)
        return View("Invalid Owner");

    var physicaltests = ehr.PhysicalTests.Where(test=>!test.IsDeleted).OrderByDescending(test => test.CreationDate);
    List<PhysicalTestListItem> physicalTestsVM = new List<PhysicalTestListItem>();
    Mapper.Map(physicaltests, physicalTestsVM);
    var paginatedTests = physicalTestsVM.ToPagedList(page ?? 0, PAGESIZE);// new PaginatedList<PhysicalTestListItem>(physicalTestsVM, page ?? 0, pageSize);
    return View(paginatedTests);
}

public ActionResult Create(int ehrId)
{
    EHR ehr = ehrRepository.FindById(ehrId);
    if (ehr.UserName != User.Identity.Name)
        return View("Invalid Owner");

    return View(new PhysicalTestForm());
}

I have absolutely all of my methods inside my PhysicalTestsController performing these three lines of code before execution. How can I refactor this to avoid so much repetition? I have only included two of my methods but there are actually six methods.

Answer 1

I would think so

An Action Filter would be appropriate for validating input data.

Eg

EHR ehr = ehrRepository.FindById(ehrId);
if (ehr.UserName != User.Identity.Name)
  return View("Invalid Owner");

Would be appropriate to put in an Action Filter, I have created other Input Validation as in [Requires Login] or [RequiresSSL] in the past so that multiple actions can share the same code (onBeforeExcuting, or onAfterExecuted).

Aspect Oriented Programming for Cross Cutting Concerns

However other things such as Logging which is a cross cutting concern across all layers of your architecture, you may want to look into AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming) to help avoid duplication of code there.

• http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2009/07/14/CustomActionFilterLoggingApplicationBlock.aspx

Update – Sample Code (Untested)

public class CheckValidUserAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
      IMyRepository myRepository = IoC.Resolve<IMyRepository>();
      Int64 userId;      
      if(Int64.TryParse(filterContext.HttpContext.Request.QueryString["id"]), out userId))
         if(!IsValidUser(userId))
            filterContext.Result = new InvalidUserResult();   
     }

     public bool IsValidUser(IMyRepository myRepository, Int64 userId)
     {
       EHR ehr = ehrRepository.FindById(ehrId);      
       return ehr != null && ehr.UserName == User.Identity.Name;
     }
}

Something like the above should do it, you’d need to create a named view to return your “Invalid User”, however that should be trivial. There should be plenty of examples on the net on how to create and use Action Filters. Personally I learnt from Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework and

• http://blog.codeville.net/2008/10/15/partial-output-caching-in-aspnet-mvc/