ASP.NET MVC 4 route username / action issue - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am currently working on an asp.net mvc 4 application and I have the need for the following type of urls:
Urls that need to be routed
http://www.mysite.com/foo/user1 <------- {username}
http://www.mysite.com/foo/edit
http://www.mysite.com/foo/delete/1
http://www.mysite.com/bar/user1 <------- {username}
http://www.mysite.com/bar/edit
http://www.mysite.com/bar/delete/1
The issue I'm having is that currently {username} gets treated as an action so to work around the problem I implemented the following routes, but this would mean that every time I want to implement a new action, or have a controller that needs {username}, I would have to update my routes:
Only Foo routes shown
routes.MapRoute("FooSomeAction", "foo/someaction", new { controller = "Food", action = "SomeAction" });
routes.MapRoute("FooDelete", "foo/delete/{id}", new { controller = "Food", action = "Delete" });
routes.MapRoute(
"FooProfile",
"foo/{username}",
new { controller = "Foo", action = "Index", username = "" }
);
// Default route
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
2 Questions
1) Is there any way I can achieve the above urls without hardcoding all the routes?
2) What is the best way to handle a situation where someone uses a username that happens to be the same name as a controller or action name?
DotnetShadow

Answer 1

You could create a custom route constraint that would check if the username exists in the possible actions for the controller. If it finds an action match, it fails and will use your default route (Edit for example). You may want to cache the list for performance reasons, but I leave that up to you.
private static List<Type> GetSubClasses<T>()
{
return Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetTypes().Where(
type => type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(T))).ToList();
}
public static List<string> GetActionNames(string controllerName)
{
controllerName = controllerName + "Controller";
var controller = GetSubClasses<Controller>().FirstOrDefault(c => c.Name == controllerName);
var names = new List<string>();
if (controller != null)
{
var methods = controller.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (var info in methods)
{
if (info.ReturnType == typeof(ActionResult))
{
names.Add(info.Name);
}
}
}
return names;
}
public class UsernameNotAction : IRouteConstraint
{
public bool Match
(
HttpContextBase httpContext,
Route route,
string parameterName,
RouteValueDictionary values,
RouteDirection routeDirection
)
{
int i = 0;
var username = values["username"];
var actionList = GetActionNames(values["controller"].ToString());
return !actionList.Any(a => a.ToUpper() == username.ToString().ToUpper());
}
}
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
"FooProfile",
"{controller}/{username}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index2", username = "" },
new { IsParameterAction = new UsernameNotAction() }
);
// Default route
routes.MapRoute(
"Default", // Route name
"{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}

Answer 2

This isn't really the answer you're looking for, sorry.
1) There's no way to route that way. There's nothing to differentiate those routes from one another, other than what you've done. I have to question why this is even necessary, I'm sure you have a good reason, but it makes no sense to me. You're still using the Index action, so why not just /foo/index/username. All I can come up with, is you have no control over the url for some reason.
2) If you use the default route, there's no problem. With your routing, problem. Your only real option is to make your controller and action names reserved words (prevent users from being created with those usernames in the database).
Sorry I couldn't really help you.

Answer 3

You can't do it like that unless you route every single route and that is not the best way to go.
What's so wrong in having the Action name in it?