Action Selector in Asp.net MVC

Action Selector are the attributes that are applied to the action methods .Action selector helps in the routing engine to select particular action method to handle a particular user request. In this article I will explain two of them action name and Non action .Action verb in the next article. 

1-Action Name            

2-Non Action

3-Action Verb 

Action Name

Action Name is the attribute that represent the action name. let us take an example to understand action name.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using DemoStoreproc.Models;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
 
namespace DemoStoreproc.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        //
        // GET: /Home/
 
     
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var context = new DemoEntities();
            ViewBag.Country =context.CountryLists;
            ViewBag.users = context.RegistrationForms.ToList();
 
            return View();
        }
 
        public string Gettime()
        {
            return DateTime.Now.ToString();
        }
}
}

Now build and run the application the index page will run

type this  in the url to run time

http://localhost:60305/Home/Gettime

you will this output

Now add action name attribute in the controller

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using DemoStoreproc.Models;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
 
namespace DemoStoreproc.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        //
        // GET: /Home/
 
     
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var context = new DemoEntities();
            ViewBag.Country = context.CountryLists;
            ViewBag.users = context.RegistrationForms.ToList();
 
            return View();
        }
        [ActionName('CurrentTime')]
        public string Gettime()
        {
            return DateTime.Now.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Again run the application and type http://localhost:60305/Home/Gettime

in the url you will get this error beacause I have applied action name with

CurrentTime.

Now add action name attribute in the controller

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using DemoStoreproc.Models;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
 
namespace DemoStoreproc.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        //
        // GET: /Home/
 
     
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var context = new DemoEntities();
            ViewBag.Country = context.CountryLists;
            ViewBag.users = context.RegistrationForms.ToList();
 
            return View();
        }
        [ActionName('CurrentTime')]
        public string Gettime()
        {
            return DateTime.Now.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Again run the application and type http://localhost:60305/Home/Gettime

in the url you will get this error beacause I have applied action name with

CurrentTime.

Now change the

http://localhost:60305/Home/CurrentTime

Non Action

Non action attribute that is use in  a controller when we want that a public method of controller that it should not be treated as action method.                                

Now I will take an example to explain Non action . This example will make clear the use of Non action

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using DemoStoreproc.Models;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
 
namespace DemoStoreproc.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        //
        // GET: /Home/
 
     
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var context = new DemoEntities();
            ViewBag.Country = context.CountryLists;
            ViewBag.users = context.RegistrationForms.ToList();
 
            return View();
        }
        [ActionName('CurrentTime')]
        public string Gettime()
        {
            return Time();
        }
        [NonAction]
        public string Time()
        {
            return DateTime.Now.ToString();
        }
    }
}

In the above example Time action cannot be use in the url beacause it has the attribute with NonAction so it will not be treated as action method.