How to write an action filter for all controllers - asp.net-mvc

Question

Here is a sample action filter. We know that when we write an action filter then we need to decorate the controller with an attribute like this, to use it for any controller.
I like to know whether there is any way to write an action filter which will work for all controllers in way that I do not need to decorate all the controllers with an action filter attribute. Any ideas?
[LogActionFilter]
public class HomeController : Controller
{}
public class LogActionFilter : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
Log("OnActionExecuting", filterContext.RouteData);
}
public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
{
Log("OnActionExecuted", filterContext.RouteData);
}
private void Log(string methodName, RouteData routeData)
{
var controllerName = routeData.Values["controller"];
var actionName = routeData.Values["action"];
var message = String.Format("{0} controller:{1} action:{2}", methodName, controllerName, actionName);
Debug.WriteLine(message, "Action Filter Log");
}
}

Answer 1

public class LogActionFilterAttribute : IActionFilter
{
public void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
{
Log("OnActionExecuted", filterContext.RouteData);
}
public void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
Log("OnActionExecuting", filterContext.RouteData);
}
private void Log(string methodName, RouteData routeData)
{
var controllerName = routeData.Values["controller"];
var actionName = routeData.Values["action"];
var message = String.Format("{0} controller:{1} action:{2}", methodName, controllerName, actionName);
Debug.WriteLine(message, "Action Filter Log");
}
}
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
GlobalFilters.Filters.Add(new LogActionFilterAttribute());
}
}

Answer 2

For your scenario you can just make a Custom BaseController and put your [LogActionFilter] attribute on Custom Basecontroller and inherit all your Controllers from Custom Basecontroller as shown below :
[LogActionFilter]
public class MyBaseController : Controller
{
}
public class MyOtherController : MyBaseController //<----instead of using Controller as base use MyBaseController as base class
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
// ...
}
}
The advantage of this approach is that you have to put your custom [LogActionFilter] attribute only at one place i.e. only on Custom BaseController.

Answer 3

If you're already subclassing from a base controller, you don't need a filter attribute or to register anything. You can just override the desired methods, e.g.,
public class BaseController : Controller {
protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) {
ViewBag.SomeValue = "glorp frob blizz nunk";
// Access the controller, parameters, querystring, etc. from the filterContext
base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);
}
}
Then, every controller that subclasses from it will run that method:
public sealed class GlorpController : BaseController {
public ActionResult Index() => View();
}
The view will quite happily see the ViewBag.SomeValue value.