ASP.NET Controller Base Class User.Identity.Name

Question

As described in this post, I created an abstract base controller class in order to be able to pass data from a controller to master.page. In this case, I want to lookup a user in my db, querying for User.Identity.Name (only if he is logged in).

However, I noticed that in this abstract base class the User property is always null. What do I have to do to get this working?

Thanks a lot

Etui

What kind of user? A domain user? Forms authentication? How have you configured authentication in your site web.config? More detail would be very helpful in getting you a good answer. – Godber

You're right Craig - I've added another answer which provides more detail to my problem. Thanks for bothering. – Etui

Answer 1

As Paco suggested, the viewdata isn't initialized till after you are trying to use it.

Try overriding Controller.Initialize() instead:

public abstract class ApplicationController : Controller
{
    private IUserRepository _repUser;

    public ApplicationController()
    {
    }

    protected override void Initialize(System.Web.Routing.RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        base.Initialize(requestContext);

        _repUser = RepositoryFactory.getUserRepository();
        var loggedInUser = _repUser.FindById(User.Identity.Name);
        ViewData["LoggedInUser"] = loggedInUser;
    }
}

Ganja

Answer 2

To use the user, you should get the current page from

HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name

Immuno

System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name works (MVC 4) – Maidinwaiting

Answer 3

By setting authentication to Windows in web.config, you can get the user with User.Identity.Name

Hatching

Answer 4

I use Page class on my static Utlilites classes. Like that;

Page P = (Page)HttpContext.Current.Handler;

and i can get all properties via the P object for the current requested page..

Immuno

Answer 5

Have you tried this: ControllerContext.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name?

Acentric