.NET 4.0 FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie FAIL - asp.net

Question

I know there are a few questions out there on this already but none seem to help my problem.
I am debugging a VB.NET webForms app and I cannot Get FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie to work (with a non-persistent cookie). It seems to create an HttpContext.Current.User object when I check for it in a watch window it seems to have created the object, but not its "Identity" property.
I've read a bunch of SO posts checked the basic things, like seeing if my browser supports cookies, etc... This project is a direct port from an earlier project of ours, which uses the same code for all things listed here, and it works just fine, relatively speaking. Where this throws an exception is where it's called from my BLL code that is supposed to get it.
Here is the code that calls the FormsAuthentication method...:
'When participant logs in having already created records in DB.
Protected Sub btnGo_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.ImageClickEventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click
If Me.txtUsername.Text.Trim.Length <> 0 AndAlso Me.txtPassword.Text.Trim.Length <> 0 Then
If Membership.ValidateUser(Me.txtUsername.Text, Me.txtPassword.Text) Then
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(Me.txtUsername.Text, False)
'This is where we run into trouble; the property checks with the forms auth...
MyBLL.Common.CurrentUser = New MyBLL.User(Me.txtUsername.Text)
'set site property..
If Site_ IsNot Nothing Then
MyBLL.Common.CurrentUser.Site = Me.Site_
End If
MyBLL.Common.CurrentParticpant = Nothing
MyBLL.Common.CurrentParticpantVisitID = -1
Response.Redirect("~/Apps/Dashboard.aspx", True)
Else
Me.lblLoginMsg.Visible = True
End If
Else
Me.lblLoginMsg.Visible = True
End If
End Sub
Here is the code for the BLL object (which has a shared property calling user from HttpContext...)
Public Shared Property CurrentUser() As MyBLL.User
Get
Dim objUser As MyBLL.User
If Not IsNothing(HttpContext.Current.Session("currentSiteUser")) Then
objUser = CType(HttpContext.Current.Session("currentSiteUser"), MyBLL.User)
If objUser.Username <> HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name Then
objUser = New MyBLL.User(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name)
HttpContext.Current.Session("currentSiteUser") = objUser
End If
Else
objUser = New MyBLL.User(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name)
HttpContext.Current.Session("currentSiteUser") = objUser
End If
Return objUser
End Get
Set(ByVal value As MyBLL.User)
'_CurrentUser = value
HttpContext.Current.Session("currentSiteUser") = value
End Set
End Property
Here is the Forms element from my webConfig; everything seems alright here to me...
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="~/Public/Default2.aspx" defaultUrl="~/Public/Default2.aspx" timeout="60"/>
</authentication>

Answer 1

You should immediately redirect after callaing the SetAuthCookie method and only on subsequent requests you may hope to get the full IPrincipal to be initialized. Do not try to access HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name in the same controller action in which you called the SetAuthCookie method. It won't have any effect. The redirect is important so that on the next request the forms authentication module will built the principal from the request cookie.
In your CurrentUser method you seem to be calling the HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name property but this is not available until you redirect.