ASP.NET MVC controller action restricted to a specific view

Question

Is there a way to restrict a controller action to be accessible only from a specific view? I have a Details page for a queried entity in my database and basically by a button and a simple JS confirmation prompt I would like to change few properties of this object and save it back to the database. I've developed a controller action method which does the job but I have no idea how to restrict access to it, so users cannot (un)intentionally modify entities by passing a specific url in the browser. I would like the action to be only accessible on this specific Details page, by pressing the designated button. I tried using [ChildActionOnly] but it's only accessible from another action method, and not a view.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Thanks to Stephen Muecke's comment I've managed to get it working.

The button is a simple Action Link, which redirects to the restricted controller action:

public ActionResult ReturnBook(int id)
    {
        if (Request.UrlReferrer == null)
        {
            return HttpNotFound();
        }

        //code
    }

The method checks, if there is any UrlReferrer at all. Typing action url in the browser results in the referrer being null. If the call is made by ActionLink from a View, the UrlReferrer is not null and optionally its property Request.UrlReferrer.AbsolutePath can be checked and compared to a desired url, from which the invoke can only be made. In my case, as I am not invoking this method anywhere else in my code, I stayed with just null/notnull condition.