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I would like to execute the below line when the user logs in so that I have access to the MembershipUser object. However I am having a hard time figuring out when to set it.

 Session["User"] = Membership.GetUser();

So far I've tried...

  • Application_AcquireRequestState
  • Application_BeginRequest
  • FormsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate

For each the session state isn't necessarily available.

Manually calling it in the log-in page is easy, but I need to have it work when automatically logging in using cookies as well.

Jonathan Allen
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2 Answers2

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If all you want do is store arbitrary data along with the username, there is an open source project called FormsAuthenticationExtensions that allows you to do exactly this in a very simple manner:

In your Login action you would store your data like this:

var ticketData = new NameValueCollection
{
    { "name", user.FullName },
    { "emailAddress", user.EmailAddress }
};
new FormsAuthentication().SetAuthCookie(user.UserId, true, ticketData);

And you read it back like this:

var ticketData = ((FormsIdentity) User.Identity).Ticket.GetStructuredUserData();
var name = ticketData["name"];
var emailAddress = ticketData["emailAddress"];

Data is stored in the same cookie holding the authentication ticket, so it will be available for as long as the user is logged in.

Project page: http://formsauthext.codeplex.com/

Nuget: http://nuget.org/List/Packages/FormsAuthenticationExtensions

Daniel Liuzzi
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Why? You can access Membership.GetUser from anywhere. It's a static method. What is the point of placing a value you can access from anywhere in a place you can access from anywhere?

Erik Funkenbusch
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    because you don't have go to the database every time you want to display user's full name, etc – Eranga Jun 30 '11 at 07:36
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    @Eranga - I think it would be a lot more efficient to derive your own custom membership provider that caches the data, it's simple to do and you can do it once, and then forget about it. There are several articles on how to do this. Another option is to create a CachedMembershipUser wrapper that caches this data. You use the same interfaces, but forward to the real provider when needed. – Erik Funkenbusch Jun 30 '11 at 08:00