Significance of NonAction Attribute in ASP.NET MVC

The NonAction attribute is used when we want a public method in a controller but do not want to treat it as an action method. An action method is a public method in a controller that can be invoked using a URL. So, by default, if we have any public method in a controller then it can be invoked using a URL request. To restrict access to public methods in a controller, NonAction attribute can be used.

Now let us consider HomeController having two public methods MyMethod1 and MyMethod2.

Controller

Example

using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace DemoMvcApplication.Controllers{
   public class HomeController : Controller{
      public string MyMethod1(){
         return "<h1>My Method 1 Invoked</h1>";
      }
      public string MyMethod2(){
         return "<h1>My Method 2 Invoked</h1>";
      }
   }
}

Let us invoke both the methods in the HomeController using the below URLs.

http://localhost:59146/Home/MyMethod1

http://localhost:59146/Home/MyMethod2

Let's say MyMethod2 is for some internal purpose, and we don't want it to be invoked using a URL request. To achieve this, we have to decorate it with NonAction attribute.

Controller

Example

using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace DemoMvcApplication.Controllers{
   public class HomeController : Controller{
      public string MyMethod1(){
         return "<h1>My Method 1 Invoked</h1>";
      }
      [NonAction]
      public string MyMethod2(){
         return "<h1>My Method 2 Invoked</h1>";
      }
   }
}

Below is the output of making a MyMethod2 Non Action.

Output