How to create async validation attribute in WEB API 2 - asp.net-mvc

I heard that it is possible to create async validation attributes in ASP.NET WEB API 2, but I didn't find any examples. I would like to create a validation class like this one, but async way:
public class UserNameAvailable : ValidationAttribute
{
public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
var username = value as string;
if(username != null)
{
return !Database.UserExists(username); // must be async
}
return true;
}
}

By validation attribute, I am assuming you are referring to something like an ActionFitler attribute. In Web API 2, we do not yet have async version of methods in ActionFilter attributes yet. However, in the coming release we are supporting this feature.
Its still possible to create custom action filter attributes yourself which implement System.Web.Http.Filters.IActionFilter, but I am wondering if you would rather wait for the next release. if this cannot wait, let me know and I can try something out for you.

Related

Add Authorize Attribute Filter in Swashbuckler Implementation of Swagger

Looking to add the AuthorizeFilterAttribute or AnonymousFilterAttribute to an endpoint in Swashbuckle's implementation of Swagger so I can see which attribute is used on each endpoint in the generated documentation file in a running webapi that ends in /swagger. Is this currenlty possible?
I specifically would like to add a big bold label that says this endpoint is [Anonymous] or that endpoint is using [Authorize] and have them look differently that the summary or remark text.
Also I would like to be able to filter out all the different types of these restriction filter attributes for each endpoint including [NonAction], [Authorize], and [Anonymous] where one of these might be at the top of each controller endpoint. Maybe even eventually add other types of FilterAttributes besides these on each endpoint.
Currently it looks like only the HTTP Methods, the request and response objects can be retrieved in the current implementation so I was not able to find definitive information on this.
Since this is a Swagger implementation do these .NET specific attribute filters not translate to Swashbuckle b/c they only implement what's in the Swagger specification and nothing else?
Finally are their .NET specific extensions to Swashbuckle's implementation that do this?
Thanks!
For the part adding the label to unprotected methods/actions you could use an operation filter like this
public class UnprotectedOperationFilter : IOperationFilter
{
private bool HasAttribute(MethodInfo methodInfo, Type type, bool inherit)
{
// inhertit = true also checks inherited attributes
var actionAttributes = methodInfo.GetCustomAttributes(inherit);
var controllerAttributes = methodInfo.DeclaringType.GetTypeInfo().GetCustomAttributes(inherit);
var actionAndControllerAttributes = actionAttributes.Union(controllerAttributes);
return actionAndControllerAttributes.Any(attr => attr.GetType() == type);
}
public void Apply(Operation operation, OperationFilterContext context)
{
bool hasAuthorizeAttribute = HasAttribute(context.MethodInfo, typeof(AuthorizeAttribute), true);
bool hasAnonymousAttribute = HasAttribute(context.MethodInfo, typeof(AllowAnonymousAttribute), true);
// so far as I understood the action/operation is public/unprotected
// if there is no authorize or an allow anonymous (allow anonymous overrides all authorize)
bool isAuthorized = hasAuthorizeAttribute && !hasAnonymousAttribute;
if (!isAuthorized)
{
operation.Description =
"<p><bold>BIG BOLD LABEL indicating an UPROTECTED PUBLIC method</bold></p>"
+ operation.Description;
}
}
}
and add it with
services.AddSwaggerGen(c => { c.OperationFilter<UnprotectedOperationFilter>();} );
I didn't understand what you mean with filter out different attributes but I hope the code above helps you to check if the attribute is present and do what you desire to do.

How to count number of hits to the website using MVC [duplicate]

what is the best way to capture page views by person without slowing down performance on the site. I see that stackoverflow show page views all over the place. Are they doing an insert into a db everytime i click on a page?
In asp.net-mvc, Is there any recommended way to track page view per user (my site has a login screen) so i can review which pages people are going to and how often
First off.. if what you really care about is how are customers using my site then you most likely want to look into Google Analytics or a similar service.
But if you want a quick and dirty page view record and you are using ASP.Net MVC 3 then as Chris Fulstow mentioned you're going to want to use a mix of global action filters and caching. Here is an example.
PageViewAttribute.cs
public class PageViewAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
private static readonly TimeSpan pageViewDumpToDatabaseTimeSpan = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 10);
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var calledMethod = string.Format("{0} -> {1}",
filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName,
filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName);
var cacheKey = string.Format("PV-{0}", calledMethod);
var cachedResult = HttpRuntime.Cache[cacheKey];
if(cachedResult == null)
{
HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert(cacheKey, new PageViewValue(), null, DateTime.Now.Add(pageViewDumpToDatabaseTimeSpan) , Cache.NoSlidingExpiration, CacheItemPriority.Default,
onRemove);
}
else
{
var currentValue = (PageViewValue) cachedResult;
currentValue.Value++;
}
}
private static void onRemove(string key, object value, CacheItemRemovedReason reason)
{
if (!key.StartsWith("PV-"))
{
return;
}
// write out the value to the database
}
// Used to get around weird cache behavior with value types
public class PageViewValue
{
public PageViewValue()
{
Value = 1;
}
public int Value { get; set; }
}
}
And in your Global.asax.cs
public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication
{
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
filters.Add(new PageViewAttribute());
}
}
For pre-ASP.Net MVC 3 ONLY you are going to have to apply the same attribute manually to all of your actions.
[PageView]
public ActionResult CallOne()
{
}
[PageView]
public ActionResult CallTwo()
{
}
The best way would probably be a global action filter that intercepts requests to all actions on all controllers, then increments a counter in the database for the current user and page. To save hitting the database too hard, you could cache these values and invalidate them every few minutes, depending on how much traffic you're dealing with.
We use the open source Piwik: http://piwik.org/, which is setup on it's own server. One line of Javascript in the _Layout page makes a call to Piwik after the page has loaded (put the JS at the end) and does not affect page load performance at all.
In addition to just counts, you'll get a ton of info about where your users are coming from, browser, screen resolutions, installed plugins. Plus you can track conversions and use the same tool to track marketing campaigns, etc.
<soapbox>
I cannot think of a situation where you'd be better off implementing this in MVC or in your web app in general. This stuff simply does not belong in your web app and is a meta-concern that should be separated out. This approach has enabled us to track analytics for all of our apps (32 of them: mvc 2/3, webforms, php...) in a unified manner.
If you really don't want to use another tool for this purpose, I would recommend tapping into your IIS log and getting your stats from there. Again, to get any real decision making power out of it, you'll need to put a good analyzer on it. I recommend Splunk: http://www.splunk.com/
</soapbox>
I wanted to post an updated version of Shane's answer for those who are interested. Some things to consider:
You have to set the action attribute up as a service when decorating your
methods using syntax like the following :
[ServiceFilter(typeof(PageViewAttribute))]
As far as I can tell, HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert isn't a thing in .NET Core, so I used a simple implementation of IMemoryCache (You may need to add this line to your startup.cs in order to use the interface):
services.AddMemoryCache();
Because we are injecting IMemoryCache into a class that is not a controller, we need to register our attribute as a service in startup.cs, like so:
services.AddScoped<[PageViewAttribute]>(); - without brackets!
Whatever object you return when creating a cacheKey will be assigned to the 'value' parameter of the OnRemove method.
Below is the code.
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var controllerActionDescriptor = filterContext.ActionDescriptor as ControllerActionDescriptor;
var arguments = filterContext.ActionArguments;
ActionId = arguments["id"].ToString();
var calledMethod = string.Format("{0} -> {1}",
controllerActionDescriptor.ControllerName,
controllerActionDescriptor.ActionName);
var cacheKey = string.Format("PV-{0}", calledMethod);
var cachedResult = _memoryCache.Get(cacheKey);
if (cachedResult == null)
{
//Get cacheKey if found, if not create cache key with following settings
_memoryCache.GetOrCreate(cacheKey, cacheKey =>
{
cacheKey.AbsoluteExpirationRelativeToNow
= pageViewDumpToDatabaseTimeSpan;
cacheKey.SetValue(1);
cacheKey.RegisterPostEvictionCallback(onRemove);
return cacheKey.Value;
});
}
else
{
_memoryCache.Get(cacheKey);
}
}
//Called when Memory entry is removed
private void onRemove(object key, object value, EvictionReason reason, object state)
{
if (!key.ToString().StartsWith("PV-"))
{
return;
}
// write out the value to the database
SaveToDataBase(key.ToString(), (int)value);
}
As a point of reference, this was done for a .NET Core 5 MVC App.
Regards.

ASP.NET Web Api OData: How to validate Delta<Entity>?

I have a Validation Framework set up to automatically validate parameters of Web Api action methods (including OData action methods). However, this does not work for PATCH requests that store the changed properties in a Delta<Entity> type.
I've done some digging around and, as you can see in the ASP.NET source code of Delta, it has the NonValidatingParameterBinding attribute, which means that Delta's are not subjected to validation.
Now an obvious solution would be to apply the delta and then perform manual validation of the resulting entity.
But are there other solutions that do not require applying the patch? Ideally it should happen automatically before the action method is called...
Thanks.
It was an explicit design decision to not validate Delta<Entity>. Reason being, a Delta<Entity> is only a partial entity and by definition could be invalid. As you have guessed, the proper approach is to validate the entity after the Delta<TEntity> is applied on top of it.
Sample code,
public void Patch(Delta<Customer> delta)
{
Customer c = new Customer();
delta.Patch(c);
Validate(c, typeof(Customer));
}
private void Validate(object model, Type type)
{
var validator = Configuration.Services.GetBodyModelValidator();
var metadataProvider = Configuration.Services.GetModelMetadataProvider();
HttpActionContext actionContext = new HttpActionContext(ControllerContext, Request.GetActionDescriptor());
if (!validator.Validate(model, type, metadataProvider, actionContext, String.Empty))
{
throw new HttpResponseException(Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, actionContext.ModelState));
}
}
Complete sample here.
We too arrived at this problem. However, we are using a custom version of Delta<T> (heavily based on OData).
The core issue (apart from [NonValidatingParameterBinding]) is that the entity is hidden (behind delta.GetEntity()) and hence will not be validated. Also we only want to validate changed properties.
We solved this by adding the IValidateObject interface to our custom Delta class, making the signature as follows:
[NonValidatingParameterBinding]
public class Delta<TEntityType> : DynamicObject, IDelta, IValidatableObject
where TEntityType : class
This can probably also be done in a class inheriting from OData's Delta<T>, but that is not something we have tried.
Implementation of the interface looks like this:
public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
{
var entity = this.GetEntity();
var innerValidationContext = new ValidationContext(entity);
List<ValidationResult> validationResults = new List<ValidationResult>();
foreach (var propertyName in this.GetChangedPropertyNames())
{
innerValidationContext.MemberName = propertyName;
Validator.TryValidateProperty(EntityType.GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(entity), innerValidationContext, validationResults);
}
return validationResults;
}
Hope this helps!
/Victor

ASP.NET MVC 4, how to access/modify the view model object (and change view and action method) before it is used as action method parameter?

Is there any useful hook in ASP.NET MVC (MVC4) which can let you access the Action method parameter (View model) before the action method becomes invoked, and then also (e.g. depending on the value of something you checked in the action method parameter) let you prevent the action method from being invoked, i.e. instead either forward the view model object (action method parameter) to another action method or directly to some view (i.e. without any further processing in an action method) ?
If you do not understand the question, please see the code example below which should illustrate the kind of code I am looking for...
(though I do not know if there actually exists such kind of interface and a possibility to hook an implementation into the MVC framework)
If this is indeed possible, I would like to see an answer with code example about how to do it (and not just a response with someone claiming that e.g. "try using method 'ActionFilterAttribute.OnActionExecuting' or 'IModelBinder.BindModel' " because I have already tried those and could not make it work).
Also, please respect that I do not want this thread to become a discussion about WHY to do it, but want to see HOW to do it.
(i.e. I am not interested in getting into discussions with responses such as "What are you actually trying to achieve?" or "There are probably better things of doing what you want to do...")
The question can be split into three subquestions/code examples as my own code samples below try to illustrate:
(but would like them "refactored" into REAL code with usage of real existing types)
(obviously, every type below which includes the substring "Some" is something I have made up, and I am looking for the corresponding real thing ...)
(1) Example of how to get access to (and potentially modify) view model objects (action method parameters) in a generic place before the actual action method is invoked with the view model object parameter.
The kind of code example I am looking for would probably be similar to below but do not know what kind of interface to use and how to register it to be able to do something like below:
public class SomeClass: ISomeInterface { // How to register this kind of hook in Application_Start ?
public void SomeMethodSomewhere(SomeActionMethodContext actionMethodContext, object actionMethodParameterViewModel) {
string nameOfTheControllerAboutToBeInvoked = actionMethodContext.ControllerName;
string nameOfTheActionMethodAboutToBeInvoked = actionMethodContext.MethodName;
// the above strings are not used below but just used for illustrating that the "context object" contains information about the action method to become invoked by the MVC framework
if(typeof(IMyBaseInterfaceForAllMyViewModels).IsAssignableFrom(actionMethodParameterViewModel.GetType())) {
IMyBaseInterfaceForAllMyViewModels viewModel = (IMyBaseInterfaceForAllMyViewModels) actionMethodParameterViewModel;
// check something in the view model:
if(viewModel.MyFirstGeneralPropertyInAllViewModels == "foo") {
// modify something in the view model before it will be passed to the target action method
viewModel.MySecondGeneralPropertyInAllViewModels = "bar";
}
}
}
}
(2) Example of how to prevent the targeted action method from being executed and instead invoke another action method.
The example might be an extension of the above example, with something like below:
public void SomeMethodSomewhere(SomeActionMethodContext actionMethodContext, object actionMethodParameterViewModel) {
... same as above ...
if(viewModel.MyFirstGeneralPropertyInAllViewModels == "foo") {
actionMethodContext.ControllerName = "SomeOtherController";
actionMethodContext.MethodName = "SomeOtherActionMethod";
// The above is just one example of how I imagine this kind of thing could be implemented with changing properties, and below is another example of doing it with a method invocation:
SomeHelper.PreventCurrentlyTargetedActionMethodFromBecomingExecutedAndInsteadExecuteActionMethod("SomeOtherController", "SomeOtherActionMethod", actionMethodParameterViewModel);
// Note that I do _NOT_ want to trigger a new http request with something like the method "Controller.RedirectToAction"
}
(3) Example of how to prevent the normal action method from being executed and instead forward the view model object directly to a view without any further processing.
The example would be an extension of the first above example, with something like below:
public void SomeMethodSomewhere(SomeActionMethodContext actionMethodContext, object actionMethodParameterViewModel) {
... same as the first example above ...
if(viewModel.MyFirstGeneralPropertyInAllViewModels == "foo") {
// the below used razor view must of course be implemented with a proper type for the model (e.g. interface 'IMyBaseInterfaceForAllMyViewModels' as used in first example above)
SomeHelper.PreventCurrentlyTargetedActionMethodFromBecomingExecutedAndInsteadForwardViewModelToView("SomeViewName.cshtml", actionMethodParameterViewModel);
}
You could use an action filter and override the OnActionExecuting event:
public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
...
}
}
Now let's see what useful information you could extract from this filterContext argument that is passed to this method. The property you should be looking for is called ActionParameters and represents an IDictionary<string, object>. As its name suggests this property contains all the parameters that are passed to the controller action by name and value.
So let's suppose that you have the following controller action:
[MyActionFilter]
public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
{
...
}
Here's how you could retrieve the value of the view model after model binding:
public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var model = filterContext.ActionParameters["model"] as MyViewModel;
// do something with the model
// You could change some of its properties here
}
}
Now let's see the second part of your question. How to shortcircuit the controller action and redirect to another action?
This could be done by assigning a value to the Result property:
public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
... some processing here and you decide to redirect:
var routeValues = new RouteValueDictionary(new
{
controller = "somecontroller",
action = "someaction"
});
filterContext.Result = new RedirectToRouteResult(routeValues);
}
}
or for example you decide to shortcircuit the execution of the controller action and directly render a view:
public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var viewResult = new ViewResult
{
ViewName = "~/Views/FooBar/Baz.cshtml",
};
MyViewModel someModel = ... get the model you want to pass to the view
viewResult.ViewData.Model = model;
filterContext.Result = viewResult;
}
}
or you might decide to render a JSON result:
public class MyActionFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
MyViewModel someModel = ... get the model you want to pass to the view
filterContext.Result = new JsonResult
{
Data = model,
JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet
};
}
}
So as you can see the possibilities are unlimited of what you can do.
I have experimented with the code in the answer provided by the user Darin Dimitrov, and the first and third parts of the answer are correct.
(Though, for others who might find this thread and be interested, I can clarify that in the first answer the "model" does not seem to
be a hardcoded keyword always used for the model but seems to have to correspond to the chosen name of the action method parameter.
In other words, if you instead have the method signature
public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel myViewModel)
then in your action filter you have to use
var model = filterContext.ActionParameters["myViewModel"] as MyViewModel;
)
Regarding the second answer, the usage of 'RedirectToRouteResult' will trigger a new http request (which was not desired as I mentioned in the second code example of mine).
I found another way of "changing" action method by actually invoking it explicitly:
var controller = new SomeController();
ActionResult result = controller.SomeAction(model);
filterContext.Result = result;
The above code actually seems to prevent the originally targeted action method from becoming invoked, i.e. when I put a breakpoint in the method annotated with '[MyActionFilter]' the execution never got into that method.
Typically, it is probably not desired to hardcode a controller like above, but instead reflection might be used, for example as below with the thirdpart library "fasterflect":
string nameOfController = ...
string nameOfActionMethod = ...
// both above variables might for example be derived by using some naming convention and parsing the refering url, depending on what you want to do ...
var theController = this.GetType().Assembly.CreateInstance(nameOfController);
ActionResult result = (ActionResult)theController.CallMethod(nameOfActionMethod, model);
filterContext.Result = result;
(for those who want to extract the names of the current target controller and action method, when implementing logic to determine the controller you want to invoke, you can use this code in the filter:
var routeValueDictionary = filterContext.RouteData.Values;
string nameOfTargetedController = routeValueDictionary["controller"].ToString();
string nameOfTargetedActionMethod = routeValueDictionary["action"].ToString();
)
I think it feels a bit awkward to instantiate and invoke controllers like above, and would prefer to change the target controller and action method in another way if possible ?
So, the remaining question is if there is still (in MVC 4 final version) no way of redirecting/forwarding execution "internally" (without a new http request being fired as with 'RedirectToAction') at the server ?
Basically, I think I am here just looking for something like "Server.Transfer" which was used with ASP.NET Web Forms (and also the old classic ASP I believe could use the same thing).
I have seen older question/answers on this issue with people implementing this behaviour themselves with some "TransferResult" class of their own, but it seems to tend to become broken i different MVC versions.
(for example, see here for MVC 4 beta: How to redirect MVC action without returning 301? (using MVC 4 beta) ).
Is there really still not a simple standard solution (implemented in MVC 4 final) about how to do an "internal redirect" without a new http request (as RedirectToAction does) ?

How do I prevent multiple form submission in .NET MVC without using Javascript?

I want to prevent users submitting forms multiple times in .NET MVC. I've tried several methods using Javascript but have had difficulties getting it to work in all browsers. So, how can I prevent this in my controller? It there some way that multiple submissions can be detected?
Updated answer for ASP.NET Core MVC (.NET Core & .NET 5.0)
Update note: Remember ASP.NET Core is still called "Core" in .NET 5.0.
I'm going to stick to the least-impact use case like before, where you're only adorning those controller actions that you specifically want to prevent duplicate requests on. If you want to have this filter run on every request, or want to use async, there are other options. See this article for more details.
The new form tag helper now automatically includes the AntiForgeryToken so you no longer need to manually add that to your view.
Create a new ActionFilterAttribute like this example. You can do many additional things with this, for example including a time delay check to make sure that even if the user presents two different tokens, they aren't submitting multiple times per minute.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = false)]
public class PreventDuplicateRequestAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute {
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext context) {
if (context.HttpContext.Request.HasFormContentType && context.HttpContext.Request.Form.ContainsKey("__RequestVerificationToken")) {
var currentToken = context.HttpContext.Request.Form["__RequestVerificationToken"].ToString();
var lastToken = context.HttpContext.Session.GetString("LastProcessedToken");
if (lastToken == currentToken) {
context.ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, "Looks like you accidentally submitted the same form twice.");
}
else {
context.HttpContext.Session.SetString("LastProcessedToken", currentToken);
}
}
}
}
By request, I also wrote an asynchronous version which can be found here.
Here's a contrived usage example of the custom PreventDuplicateRequest attribute.
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
[PreventDuplicateRequest]
public IActionResult Create(InputModel input) {
if (ModelState.IsValid) {
// ... do something with input
return RedirectToAction(nameof(SomeAction));
}
// ... repopulate bad input model data into a fresh viewmodel
return View(viewModel);
}
A note on testing: simply hitting back in a browser does not use the same AntiForgeryToken. On faster computers where you can't physically double click the button twice, you'll need to use a tool like Fiddler to replay your request with the same token multiple times.
A note on setup: Core MVC does not have sessions enabled by default. You'll need to add the Microsoft.AspNet.Session package to your project, and configure your Startup.cs properly. Please read this article for more details.
Short version of Session setup is:
In Startup.ConfigureServices() you need to add:
services.AddDistributedMemoryCache();
services.AddSession();
In Startup.Configure() you need to add (before app.UseMvc() !!):
app.UseSession();
Original answer for ASP.NET MVC (.NET Framework 4.x)
First, make sure you're using the AntiForgeryToken on your form.
Then you can make a custom ActionFilter:
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class PreventDuplicateRequestAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute {
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) {
if (HttpContext.Current.Request["__RequestVerificationToken"] == null)
return;
var currentToken = HttpContext.Current.Request["__RequestVerificationToken"].ToString();
if (HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"] == null) {
HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"] = currentToken;
return;
}
lock (HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"]) {
var lastToken = HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"].ToString();
if (lastToken == currentToken) {
filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.AddModelError("", "Looks like you accidentally tried to double post.");
return;
}
HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"] = currentToken;
}
}
}
And on your controller action you just...
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
[PreventDuplicateRequest]
public ActionResult CreatePost(InputModel input) {
...
}
You'll notice this doesn't prevent the request altogether. Instead it returns an error in the modelstate, so when your action checks if ModelState.IsValid then it will see that it is not, and will return with your normal error handling.
I've tried several methods using Javascript but have had difficulties getting it to work in all browsers
Have you tried using jquery?
$('#myform').submit(function() {
$(this).find(':submit').attr('disabled', 'disabled');
});
This should take care of the browser differences.
Just to complete the answer of #Darin, if you want to handle the client validation (if the form has required fields), you can check if there's input validation error before disabling the submit button :
$('#myform').submit(function () {
if ($(this).find('.input-validation-error').length == 0) {
$(this).find(':submit').attr('disabled', 'disabled');
}
});
What if we use $(this).valid()?
$('form').submit(function () {
if ($(this).valid()) {
$(this).find(':submit').attr('disabled', 'disabled');
}
});
Strategy
The truth is that you need several lines of attack for this problem:
The Post/Redirect/Get (PRG) pattern is not enough by itself. Still, it should always be used to provide the user with good experiences when using back, refresh, etc.
Using JavaScript to prevent the user from clicking the submit button multiple times is a must because it provides a much less jarring user experience compared to server-side solutions.
Blocking duplicate posts solely on the client side doesn't protect against bad actors and does not help with transient connection problems. (What if your first request made it to the server but the response did not make it back to the client, causing your browser to automatically resend the request?)
I'm not going to cover PRG, but here are my answers for the other two topics. They build upon the other answers here. FYI I'm using .NET Core 3.1.
Client-Side
Assuming you are using jQuery validation, I believe this is the cleanest/most efficient way to prevent your form submit button from being double-clicked. Note that submitHandler is only called after validation has passed, so there is no need to re-validate.
$submitButton = $('#submitButton');
$('#mainForm').data('validator').settings.submitHandler = function (form) {
form.submit();
$submitButton.prop('disabled', true);
};
An alternative to disabling the submit button is to show an overlay in front of the form during submission to 1) block any further interaction with the form and 2) communicate that the page is "doing something." See this article for more detail.
Server-Side
I started off with Jim Yarbro's great answer above, but then I noticed Mark Butler's answer pointing out how Jim's method fails if someone submits forms via multiple browser tabs (because each tab has a different token and posts from different tabs can be interlaced). I confirmed that such a problem really does exist and then decided to upgrade from tracking just the last token to tracking the last x tokens.
To facilitate that, I made a couple of helper classes: one for storing the last x tokens and one for making it easy to store/retrieve objects to/from session storage. The main code now checks that the current token is not found in the token history. Other than that, the code is pretty much the same. I just made some little tweaks to suit my tastes. I included both the regular and asynchronous versions. The full code is below, but these are the critical lines:
var history = session.Get<RotatingHistory<string>>(HistoryKey) ?? new RotatingHistory<string>(HistoryCapacity);
if (history.Contains(token))
{
context.ModelState.AddModelError("", DuplicateSubmissionErrorMessage);
}
else
{
history.Add(token);
}
Sadly, the fatal flaw of this approach is that the feedback from the first post (before any duplicates) gets lost. A better (but much more complex) solution would be to store the result of each unique request by GUID, and then handle duplicate requests by not only skipping doing the work again but also returning the same result from the first request, giving the user a seamless experience. This thorough article detailing Air BnB's methods of avoiding duplicate payments will give you an idea of the concepts.
PreventDuplicateFormSubmissionAttribute.cs
using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Filters;
// This class provides an attribute for controller actions that flags duplicate form submissions
// by adding a model error if the request's verification token has already been seen on a prior
// form submission.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = false)]
public class PreventDuplicateFormSubmissionAttribute: ActionFilterAttribute
{
const string TokenKey = "__RequestVerificationToken";
const string HistoryKey = "RequestVerificationTokenHistory";
const int HistoryCapacity = 5;
const string DuplicateSubmissionErrorMessage =
"Your request was received more than once (either due to a temporary problem with the network or a " +
"double button press). Any submissions after the first one have been rejected, but the status of the " +
"first one is unclear. It may or may not have succeeded. Please check elsewhere to verify that your " +
"request had the intended effect. You may need to resubmit it.";
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext context)
{
HttpRequest request = context.HttpContext.Request;
if (request.HasFormContentType && request.Form.ContainsKey(TokenKey))
{
string token = request.Form[TokenKey].ToString();
ISession session = context.HttpContext.Session;
var history = session.Get<RotatingHistory<string>>(HistoryKey) ?? new RotatingHistory<string>(HistoryCapacity);
if (history.Contains(token))
{
context.ModelState.AddModelError("", DuplicateSubmissionErrorMessage);
}
else
{
history.Add(token);
session.Put(HistoryKey, history);
}
}
}
public override async Task OnActionExecutionAsync(ActionExecutingContext context, ActionExecutionDelegate next)
{
HttpRequest request = context.HttpContext.Request;
if (request.HasFormContentType && request.Form.ContainsKey(TokenKey))
{
string token = request.Form[TokenKey].ToString();
ISession session = context.HttpContext.Session;
await session.LoadAsync();
var history = session.Get<RotatingHistory<string>>(HistoryKey) ?? new RotatingHistory<string>(HistoryCapacity);
if (history.Contains(token))
{
context.ModelState.AddModelError("", DuplicateSubmissionErrorMessage);
}
else
{
history.Add(token);
session.Put(HistoryKey, history);
await session.CommitAsync();
}
await next();
}
}
}
RotatingHistory.cs
using System.Linq;
// This class stores the last x items in an array. Adding a new item overwrites the oldest item
// if there is no more empty space. For the purpose of being JSON-serializable, its data is
// stored via public properties and it has a parameterless constructor.
public class RotatingHistory<T>
{
public T[] Items { get; set; }
public int Index { get; set; }
public RotatingHistory() {}
public RotatingHistory(int capacity)
{
Items = new T[capacity];
}
public void Add(T item)
{
Items[Index] = item;
Index = ++Index % Items.Length;
}
public bool Contains(T item)
{
return Items.Contains(item);
}
}
SessonExtensions.cs
using System.Text.Json;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
// This class is for storing (serializable) objects in session storage and retrieving them from it.
public static class SessonExtensions
{
public static void Put<T>(this ISession session, string key, T value) where T : class
{
session.SetString(key, JsonSerializer.Serialize(value));
}
public static T Get<T>(this ISession session, string key) where T : class
{
string s = session.GetString(key);
return s == null ? null : JsonSerializer.Deserialize<T>(s);
}
}
You could include a hidden (random or counter) value in the form post, a controller could track these values in an 'open' list or something similar; every time your controller hands out a form it embeds a value, which it tracks allowing one post use of it.
In its self, no, however depending on what the controller is actually doing, you should be able to work out a way.
Is a record being created in the database that you can check for to see if they've already submitted the form?
Just add this code at the end of your page. I am using "jquery-3.3.1.min.js" and "bootstrap 4.3.1"
<script type="text/javascript">
$('form').submit(function () {
if ($(this).valid()) {
$(this).find(':submit').attr('disabled', 'disabled');
}
});
</script>
Use the Post/Redirect/Get design pattern.
PS:
It looks to me that the answer by Jim Yarbro could have a fundamental flaw in that the __RequestVerificationToken stored in the HttpContext.Current.Session["LastProcessedToken"] will be replaced when a second form is submitted (from say another browser window). At this point, it is possible to re-submit the first form without it being recognized as a duplicate submission. For the proposed model to work, wouldn’t a history of __RequestVerificationToken be required? This doesn't seem feasible.
Dont reinvent the wheel :)
Use the Post/Redirect/Get design pattern.
Here you can find a question and an answer giving some suggestions on how to implement it in ASP.NET MVC.
You can also pass some sort of token in a hidden field and validate this in the controller.
Or you work with redirects after submitting values. But this get's difficult if you take heavily advantage of ajax.
This works on every browser
document.onkeydown = function () {
switch (event.keyCode) {
case 116: //F5 button
event.returnValue = false;
event.keyCode = 0;
return false;
case 82: //R button
if (event.ctrlKey) {
event.returnValue = false;
event.keyCode = 0;
return false;
}
}
}
You can do this by creating some sort of static entry flag that is user specific, or specific to whatever way you want to protect the resource. I use a ConcurrentDictionary to track entrance. The key is basically the name of the resource I'm protecting combined with the User ID. The trick is figuring out how to block the request when you know it's currently processing.
public async Task<ActionResult> SlowAction()
{
if(!CanEnterResource(nameof(SlowAction)) return new HttpStatusCodeResult(204);
try
{
// Do slow process
return new SlowProcessActionResult();
}
finally
{
ExitedResource(nameof(SlowAction));
}
}
Returning a 204 is a response to the double-click request that will do nothing on the browser side. When the slow process is done, the browser will receive the correct response for the original request and act accordingly.
Use this simple jquery input field and will work awesomely even if you have multiple submit buttons in a single form.
$('input[type=submit]').click(function () {
var clickedBtn = $(this)
setTimeout(function () {
clickedBtn.attr('disabled', 'disabled');
}, 1);
});

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