Should I use the membership provider when using MVC and a forum database?

Question

I want to use an existing user and user group table that the forums use. I would prefer not to have to add any additional tables (other than what the forum already has).

I will be using MS SQL.

The forums are PHP which is why I want the .net site to handle all of the logic. The forum will use its own PHP logic as I will set and remove the cookies.

When the user requests a new password I would want to specify the text in the email.

I would want to set additional cookies when the user logs in (so that they are logged into the forums when they login to the site).

Is it possible to do this with the .net membership provider?

Answer 1

You can implement your own provider, see here. By this way you can choose any db schema you want, use your own password rules etc... It just takes you to overwrite the membership interface. Then you choose to use it in the webconfig, having 100% portability if you will change in the future...

Answer 2

I wouldn't. The membership provider stuff is a leaky abstraction. You have much more flexibility when implementing Users and Groups as fully fledged domain objects.