Another ControllerAuthorization.IsAccessibleToUser error in Q2 2012

[montgomery]

I get the following error after upgrading to 2012.2.607.340:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   Telerik.Web.Mvc.Infrastructure.Implementation.ControllerAuthorization.IsAccessibleToUser(RequestContext requestContext, String controllerName, String actionName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues) +105
   Telerik.Web.Mvc.Infrastructure.Implementation.NavigationItemAuthorization.IsAccessibleToUser(RequestContext requestContext, INavigatable navigationItem) +218

The menu worked prior to the upgrade. It fails on approximately 10% of our controllers. Some actions with a route value of {area = ""} work and some fail. Some controller actions within a single controller work and others fail. I cannot find anything to differentiate the ones that succeed and the ones that do not. The level of menu nesting does not appear to be a factor.

This looks to be similar to the issue reported here: LINK

[montgomery]

I found the problem. We have many areas in our application. As an example, suppose our menu is within Area1. We only use a route value in a menu item Action ({area="Area2"}, for example) when we needed to break out of Area1. However, some of our areas have controllers with the same name. As an example, suppose there are Area1.Expense and Area2.Expense controller classes. I was getting the exception posted above because the AuthorizationContextFactory constructor, when the area name is empty, will find whatever controller matches the name. If I have my menu in Area1 but it finds the Area2 controller class, then my menu will fail with the unhelpful NullReferenceException because of the following lines:

ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor = controllerDescriptor.FindAction(controllerContext, actionName);
            if (actionDescriptor == null)
            {
                return null;
            }

This is confusing because, by default, if you leave the area off, I always assumed it searched with the current area for matching controllers. That does not appear to be the case. That means, if you have a name conflict between controller classes in different areas, you should specify the area name as part of your route values.

My two suggestions are:
1. Return a reasonable error message when no action is found. String.Format("Area:{0} Controller:{1} Action:{2}", areaName, controllerName, actionName); would have just saved me three hours of work.
2. Default the areaName to be the current area if a specific areaName is not specified. This is the intuitive approach for someone working from the aspx side of things only.

[Georgi Krustev]

Hello David,

 
This is a known issue, which is already addressed. You can download the latest internal build, which includes the fix. Please excuse us for the temporary inconvenience this may cause you.

The exception will be  thrown, when the authorizationContext object used in the ControllerAuthorization.IsAccessibleUser is null. For now we decided to avoid throwing exception when the authorization context is null. if other users request such functionality (as the suggested one) we will schedule it for implementation.

As to the second suggestions, the menu is a navigational component and it should be able to navigate between different areas. Hence, I believe that it should not default to the current AreaName. If the area is not defined that the menu should navigate to default controller defined with controllerName argument. This is current behavior.

Kind regards,
Georgi Krustev
the Telerik team

[Phil]

Would love to get my hands on this internal build/fix.  Where can it be downloaded?  Having trouble finding it on your website.

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi Phil,

 The internal builds are available to commercial license holders. If your company is a paying customer please ask the person who made the purchase to add you as a licensed developer.

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Emily]

Hello Atanas,

When will this fix be available to the Open Source community?

Best Regards,
Emily

[Atanas Korchev]

Hello Emily,

 The next official release is not yet scheduled. I am sending you the file which contains the fix. Replace the existing one in Telerik.Web.Mvc\Infrastructure\Implementation.

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Andrei]

@Atanas Korchev
> The next official release is not yet scheduled.

I presume that that the next version will be released in 3 months (as it's usually done). Why should the community (open-source) wait 3 months (!!!) just to get a fix for the critical issue. I'm sure that Telerik team should release the new version (open-source) which addresses this issue in the near time. Otherwise, 50% of developers won't be able to use it and can move to some other frameworks.

[Andrei]

BTW, we can specify "controller" and "name" in a sitemap file for menu control. Could we also specify "area" route parameter along with these "controller" and "name" params in the same file? If yes, how?

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi Andrei,

 The update policy of the open source license of Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC is clearly stated on our web site.

 Despite that  I've already attached the updated C# file so open source users can have the fix. Why can't you use the attached file?

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Hesham Desouky]

A quick fix for this menu issue:

Use the the Url method instead of the Action method

e.g. Url(Url.Action("actionName","controllerName",new {area="YourArea"}))

It works for me

[Boris]

Hi,

Since Kendo replaced the ASP.NET MVC Extension, I can't find the latest internal build that contains the fix for this error. I built a whole project with the old MVC extension and I won't upgrade it to Kendo. Can you tell me how I could get the fix for this? Thanks in advance.

Boris