I implemented a custom Profile object in code as described by Joel here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/426609/asp-net-membership-how-to-assign-profile-values
I can't get it to work when I'm creating a new user, however. When I do this:
Membership.CreateUser(userName, password);
Roles.AddUserToRole(userName, "MyRole");
the user is created and added to a role in the database, but HttpContext.Current.User is still empty, and Membership.GetUser() returns null, so this (from Joel's code) doesn't work:
static public AccountProfile CurrentUser
{
get { return (AccountProfile)
(ProfileBase.Create(Membership.GetUser().UserName)); }
}
AccountProfile.CurrentUser.FullName = "Snoopy";
I've tried calling Membership.GetUser(userName) and setting Profile properties that way, but the set properties remain empty, and calling AccountProfile.CurrentUser(userName).Save() doesn't put anything in the database. I've also tried indicating that the user is valid & logged in, by calling Membership.ValidateUser, FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie, etc., but the current user is still null or anonymous (depending on the state of my browser cookies).
SOLVED (EDITED FURTHER, SEE BELOW): Based on Franci Penov's explanation and some more experimentation, I figured out the issue. Joel's code and the variations I tried will only work with an existing Profile. If no Profile exists, ProfileBase.Create(userName) will return a new empty object every time it's called; you can set properties, but they won't "stick" because a new instance is returned every time you access it. Setting HttpContext.Current.User to a new GenericPrincipal will give you a User object, but not a Profile object, and ProfileBase.Create(userName) and HttpContext.Current.Profile will still point to new, empty objects.
If you want to create a Profile for a newly-created User in the same request, you need to call HttpContext.Current.Profile.Initialize(userName, true). You can then populate the initialized profile and save it, and it will be accessible on future requests by name, so Joel's code will work. I am only using HttpContext.Current.Profile internally, when I need to create/access the Profile immediately upon creation. On any other requests, I use ProfileBase.Create(userName), and I've exposed only that version as public.
Note that Franci is correct: If you are willing to create the User (and Roles) and set it as Authenticated on the first round-trip, and ask the user to then log in, you will be able to access the Profile much more simply via Joel's code on the subsequent request. What threw me is that Roles is immediately accessible upon user creation without any initialization, but Profile is not.
My new AccountProfile code:
public static AccountProfile CurrentUser
{
get
{
if (Membership.GetUser() != null)
return ProfileBase.Create(Membership.GetUser().UserName) as AccountProfile;
else
return null;
}
}
internal static AccountProfile NewUser
{
get { return System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Profile as AccountProfile; }
}
New user creation:
MembershipUser user = Membership.CreateUser(userName, password);
Roles.AddUserToRole(userName, "MyBasicUserRole");
AccountProfile.NewUser.Initialize(userName, true);
AccountProfile.NewUser.FullName = "Snoopy";
AccountProfile.NewUser.Save();
Subsequent access:
if (Membership.ValidateUser(userName, password))
{
string name = AccountProfile.CurrentUser.FullName;
}
Further thanks to Franci for explaining the Authentication life cycle - I'm calling FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie in my validation function, but I'm returning a bool to indicate success, because User.Identity.IsAuthenticated will not be true until the subsequent request.
REVISED: I'm an idiot. The above explanation works in the narrow case, but doesn't resolve the core problem: Calling CurrentUser returns a new instance of the object each time, whether it's an existing Profile or not. Because it's defined as a property, I wasn't thinking about this, and wrote:
AccountProfile.CurrentUser.FullName = "Snoopy";
AccountProfile.CurrentUser.OtherProperty = "ABC";
AccountProfile.CurrentUser.Save();
which (of course) doesn't work. It should be:
AccountProfile currentProfile = AccountProfile.CurrentUser;
currentProfile.FullName = "Snoopy";
currentProfile.OtherProperty = "ABC";
currentProfile.Save();
It's my own fault for completely overlooking this basic point, but I do think declaring CurrentUser as a property implies that it's an object that can be manipulated. Instead, it should be declared as GetCurrentUser().