---
title: Examining the Details and Delete methods
author: rick-anderson
description: The Details controller method and view in a simple ASP.NET Core MVC app.
keywords: ASP.NET Core,
ms.author: riande
manager: wpickett
ms.date: 03/07/2017
ms.topic: get-started-article
ms.assetid: 870192b4-8d4f-45c7-8c14-83d02bc0ad79
ms.technology: aspnet
ms.prod: asp.net-core
uid: tutorials/first-mvc-app/details
---
# Examining the Details and Delete methods

By [Rick Anderson](https://twitter.com/RickAndMSFT)

Open the Movie controller and examine the `Details` method:

[!code-csharp[Main](start-mvc/sample/MvcMovie/Controllers/MoviesController.cs?name=snippet_details)]

The MVC scaffolding engine that created this action method adds a comment showing an HTTP request that invokes the method. In this case it's a GET request with three URL segments, the `Movies` controller, the `Details` method and an `id` value. Recall these segments are defined in *Startup.cs*.

[!code-csharp[Main](start-mvc/sample/MvcMovie/Startup.cs?highlight=5&name=snippet_1)]

EF makes it easy to search for data using the `SingleOrDefaultAsync` method. An important security feature built into the method is that the code verifies that the search method has found a movie before it tries to do anything with it. For example, a hacker could introduce errors into the site by changing the URL created by the links from `http://localhost:xxxx/Movies/Details/1` to something like  `http://localhost:xxxx/Movies/Details/12345` (or some other value that doesn't represent an actual movie). If you did not check for a null movie, the app would throw an exception.

Examine the `Delete` and `DeleteConfirmed` methods.

[!code-csharp[Main](start-mvc/sample/MvcMovie/Controllers/MoviesController.cs?name=snippet_delete)]

Note that the `HTTP GET Delete` method doesn't delete the specified movie, it returns a view of the movie where you can submit (HttpPost) the deletion. Performing a delete operation in response to a GET request (or for that matter, performing an edit operation, create operation, or any other operation that changes data) opens up a security hole.

The `[HttpPost]` method that deletes the data is named `DeleteConfirmed` to give the HTTP POST method a unique signature or name. The two method signatures are shown below:

[!code-csharp[Main](start-mvc/sample/MvcMovie/Controllers/MoviesController.cs?name=snippet_delete2)]

[!code-csharp[Main](start-mvc/sample/MvcMovie/Controllers/MoviesController.cs?name=snippet_delete3)]


The common language runtime (CLR) requires overloaded methods to have a unique parameter signature (same method name but different list of parameters). However, here you need two `Delete` methods -- one for GET and one for POST -- that both have the same parameter signature. (They both need to accept a single integer as a parameter.)

There are two approaches to this problem, one is to give the methods different names. That's what the scaffolding mechanism did in the preceding example. However, this introduces a small problem: ASP.NET maps segments of a URL to action methods by name, and if you rename a method, routing normally wouldn't be able to find that method. The solution is what you see in the example, which is to add the `ActionName("Delete")` attribute to the `DeleteConfirmed` method. That attribute performs mapping for the routing system so that a URL that includes /Delete/ for a POST request will find the `DeleteConfirmed` method.

Another common work around for methods that have identical names and signatures is to artificially change the signature of the POST method to include an extra (unused) parameter. That's what we did in a previous post when we added the `notUsed` parameter. You could do the same thing here for the `[HttpPost] Delete` method:

```csharp
// POST: Movies/Delete/6
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public async Task<IActionResult> Delete(int id, bool notUsed)
```

### Publish to Azure

See [Publish an ASP.NET Core web app to Azure App Service using Visual Studio](xref:tutorials/publish-to-azure-webapp-using-vs) for instructions on how to publish this app to Azure.

Thanks for completing this introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC. We appreciate any comments you leave. [Getting started with MVC and EF Core](xref:data/ef-mvc/intro) is an excellent follow up to this tutorial.

>[!div class="step-by-step"]
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