How to Initialize SimpleMembershipProvider? - asp.net

Question

I want to access full capabilities of SimpleMembershipProvider such as ValidateUser method.
So according to its documentation I should not call WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection() for initialization and instead enable standard membership and role providers.
My question is: How can I initialize SimpleMembershipProvider class
To Finally: have access to full capabilities of SimpleMembershipProvider
or if there is a better solution, thanks

Answer 1

How can I initialize SimpleMembershipProvider class
If you look at the default ASP.NET MVC 4 Internet application template the AccountController is decorated with the [InitializeSimpleMembership] attribute. That's how it is initialized in this sample. This means that you will be able to use it once you have gone through the account controller, not before. If you want to use your membership provider before authenticating you could do the same in your Application_Start method.

Answer 2

If you were to merge the InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute into the Global.asax.cs Application_Start so that the SimpleMembershipProvider would be initialized without any AccountController routes being called...
...it could look something like this: http://aaron-hoffman.blogspot.com/2013/02/aspnet-mvc-4-membership-users-passwords.html
// The using below is needed for "UsersContext" - it will be relative to your project namespace
using MvcApplication1.Models;
using System;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using System.Threading;
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Optimization;
using System.Web.Routing;
using WebMatrix.WebData;
namespace MvcApplication1
{
// Note: For instructions on enabling IIS6 or IIS7 classic mode,
// visit http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=9394801
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();
// Ensure ASP.NET Simple Membership is initialized only once per app start
LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(ref _initializer, ref _isInitialized, ref _initializerLock);
}
private static SimpleMembershipInitializer _initializer;
private static object _initializerLock = new object();
private static bool _isInitialized;
private class SimpleMembershipInitializer
{
public SimpleMembershipInitializer()
{
Database.SetInitializer<UsersContext>(null);
try
{
using (var context = new UsersContext())
{
if (!context.Database.Exists())
{
// Create the SimpleMembership database without Entity Framework migration schema
((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.CreateDatabase();
}
}
WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection", "UserProfile", "UserId", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The ASP.NET Simple Membership database could not be initialized. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256588", ex);
}
}
}
}
}