Migrating global.asax to ASP.NET 5

Question

Few days ago .NET Core RC1 got released and I gave it a go for the first time after reading a lot about it, I like it but its a bit different. I am trying to migrate a small blog (built in MVC5) to MVC 6 & .NET Core. It wasn't hard but I am really struggling to recreate the exact same global.asax settings I had in MVC 5, ASP.NET 5 no longer has global.asax so I am unable to figure out what the replacement for most of the settings are?

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();
        ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new RazorViewEngine());

        MvcHandler.DisableMvcResponseHeader = true;
        AntiForgeryConfig.SuppressXFrameOptionsHeader = true;

        BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
        RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    }

    protected void Application_BeginRequest()
    {
        Response.AddHeader("X-Frame-Options", "DENY");
    }

    protected void Application_EndRequest()
    {
        if (Response.StatusCode != 301 && Response.StatusCode != 302) return;

        var targetUrl = Response.RedirectLocation.Replace("ReturnUrl", "url");
        Response.RedirectLocation = targetUrl;
    }

    protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string typeName;

        byte userType = (byte)(Context.Request.IsAuthenticated ? byte.Parse(User.Identity.Name.Split('|')[2]) : 1);

        switch (userType)
        {
            case 1: { typeName = "Client"; break; }
            case 2: { typeName = "Admin"; break; }
            default: { typeName = "Client"; break; }
        }

        var roles = new[] { typeName };

        if (Context.User != null)
        {
            Context.User = new GenericPrincipal(Context.User.Identity, roles);
        }
    }

    private void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Exception ex = Server.GetLastError();

        if (ex is HttpAntiForgeryException)
        {
            Response.Clear();
            Server.ClearError();
            Response.Redirect("/error/cookie", true);
        }
    }

PLEASE, is there a way to get the above code to work in MVC 6 without leaving any of the settings? This is a deal breaker for me, THANK YOU.

Answer 1

To replace Application_Start, put your initialisation code in your Startup class.

Application_BeginRequest, Application_EndRequest, Application_AuthenticateRequest and Application_Error can be replaced by a middleware (global.asax is an HTTP Module which were replace by middleware)

Regarding Application_AuthenticateRequest, you should also read the doc about Request features

Answer 2

Even being an old question I'll put this as I've seen that no one gives a lead how to migrate global.asax methods to Startup.cs In the Configure section of Startup file, you just need to add

 app.Use(async (context, next) =>
                {       
                 //this will be call each request.
                 //Add headers      
                    context.Response.Headers.Add();
                 //check response status code
                  if(context.Response.StatusCode == 404) //do something
                 //check user
                 context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated 
                //redirect
                 context.Request.Path = "some url"
                 await next() // will call next logic, in case here would be your controller.
                });

That's not a working solution, this is just to show how to work with middleware and applying logic for each request.

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

According to this blogpost from Shawn Wildermuth and also he had webinar on Pluralsight about a week ago, where he told that MVC 5 global.asax, packages.config, and web.config are gone in ASP 5. So in the ASP 5 all configuration from former MVC 5 global.asax goes into new root Startup.cs file.