HttpContextAccessor.HttpContext is null in blocks and in @sections

Question

I'm doing migration from episerver 11 to 12 and in views have this problem:

In all blocks and and in @section on @Html.PropertyFor always get this exeption:

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IIS.Core.IISHttpServer[2]
      Connection ID "17293822592188153887", Request ID "80000020-0005-f000-b63f-84710c7967bb": An unhandled exception was thrown by the application.
      System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
         at EPiServer.Web.HttpContextExtensions.ContentRenderingContext(HttpContext httpContext)
         at EPiServer.Web.Mvc.Html.Internal.DeferredHtmlContent..ctor(Action`1 action, HttpContext httpContext)
         at EPiServer.Web.Mvc.Html.PropertyRenderer.GetHtmlForDefaultMode[TModel,TValue](String propertyName, String templateName, String elementName, String elementCssClass, Func`2 displayForAction)
         at EPiServer.Web.Mvc.Html.PropertyRenderer.PropertyFor[TModel,TValue](IHtmlHelper`1 html, String viewModelPropertyName, Object additionalViewData, Object editorSettings, Expression`1 expression, Func`2 displayForAction)
         at EPiServer.Web.Mvc.Html.PropertyExtensions.PropertyFor[TModel,TValue](IHtmlHelper`1 html, Expression`1 expression)
         at AspNetCore.Areas_Main_Views_Shared_Layouts__BaseHtmlBlock.ExecuteAsync() in *MY VIEW NAME*

I've debugged the decompiled code and in ContentRenderingContext HttpContextAccessor exists but the HttpContext inside it is null.

When I try to inject IHttpContextAccessor in block controller it has HttpContext null.

BUT - if i try to get it in page controller and page view (@Html.PropertyFor) it works fine a and HttpContext exists.

In Startup.cs i have it applied like this:

services.AddHttpContextAccessor();

What is wrong? Do I have to do anything else?

Edit: If I do this, then error resolves, but this doesn't look good and I don't want to copy-paste it everywhere.

For section:

@section Footer {
    @{
        ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IHttpContextAccessor>().HttpContext = Context;
    }
    
    @Html.PropertyFor(x => x.CurrentPage.FooterBottomContentArea)
}

For Block (after injecting HttpContextAccessor in InvokeComponent):

HttpContextAccessor.HttpContext = HttpContext;

You should probably clarify your question a bit. If the CMS is properly initialized you shouldn't have to initialize or add `AddHttpContextAccessor`. The code `@Html.PropertyFor(x => x.CurrentPage.FooterBottomContentArea)` looks suspicious to me. You cannot of should not edit properties like that. — Eric Herlitz, May 16 '22 at 19:45
@EricHerlitz what exactly to clarify? What do you mean by "properly" initialize? I have it initialized, it works, but I have issues with blocks and sections. The code `@Html.PropertyFor(x => x.CurrentPage.FooterBottomContentArea)` works perfectly (when not in section) and allows editing. It's legacy that we have and I cannot rewrite it right now because you don't like it, it's not in the current scope. — Ivan Maslov, May 16 '22 at 20:49
How do you access the HttpContext? It would be hard to reveal the truth without seeing how your component build. One of the possibilities might be you tried to access httpcontext from background thread (see more info here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/http-context?view=aspnetcore-6.0) — Vincent, May 17 '22 at 01:50
@Vincent I just use `@Html.PropertyFor` that uses `HttpContextAccessor.HttpContext` internally. It's episerver code and I don't have control over it. `HttpContextAccessor` exists, but `HttpContext` inside is null. Plus `HttpContext` in controller is different than `HttpContextAccessor.HttpContext` in the same controller. — Ivan Maslov, May 17 '22 at 07:17

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '22 at 13:54

We dicovered that this issue is resolved in the newer version of episerver, we updated from 12.3 to 12.6 and PropertyFor is working everywhere now.

I decompiled it and I see that in GetHtmlForDefaultMode it uses WrappedHtmlContent in the newest version and doesn't use HttpContextAccessor at all.

HttpContextAccessor.HttpContext is null in blocks and in @sections

1 Answers1