Using SimpleMembership with EF model-first

Question

Can SimpleMembership be used with EF model-first? When I try it, I get "Unable to find the requested .NET Framework Data Provider" when I call WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection.

To put it another way: I can't get the call to WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection to work when the connection string employs the System.Data.EntityClient provider (as it does when using the model-first paradigm).

To repro the issue, create an MVC 4 app, and replace the code-first UserProfile entity class (which you get for free with the MVC 4 template) with a model-first User class that you have created in the Entity Designer:

1. Create an MVC 4 app in VS 2012 and add a new, blank Entity Data Model.
2. Add a new Entity named User to the model, with fields for Id, UserName, and FullName. So, at this point, the User data entity is mapped to a Users table and is accessed via a funky connection string that employs the System.Data.EntityClient provider.
3. Verify that the EF can access the User entity. One easy way to do that is to scaffold out a Users controller based on the User table and its associated DbContext.
4. Edit the AccountModels.cs file to remove the UserProfile class and its associated UsersContext class. Replace the references to the (now missing) UserProfile and UsersContext classes with references to your new User class and its associated DbContext class.
5. Move the call to InitializeDatabaseConnection from the InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute filter class to the Application_Start method in Global.asax.cs. While you're at it, modify the arguments to use your new User entity's connection string, table name, and UserId column name.
6. Delete the (no longer used) InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute class and the references to it.

When you run the repro, it will get an Exception at the call to InitializeDatabaseConnection.

Bob

Hermineherminia

Do you mean replace public DbSet<UserProfile> UserProfiles { get; set; } with (public DbSet<UserFromEntityFirst> userProfiles{get;set;}). I am kind of in a fix with this – Vachon

@PeterEdike Yes, that's what I tried to do. I tried to replace all of the code-first stuff with my model-first stuff, but I discovered that SimpleMembership doesn't work with the model-first magic in the connection string. As Mario Zderic says, the solution is to use something that looks like the code-first connection string. – Hermineherminia

Answer 1

SimpleMembership can work with model first. Here is the solution.

1.InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute.cs from MVC 4 Internet Application templete should look like this

namespace WebAndAPILayer.Filters
{
    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
    public sealed class InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
    {
        private static SimpleMembershipInitializer _initializer;
        private static object _initializerLock = new object();
        private static bool _isInitialized;

        public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
        {
            // Ensure ASP.NET Simple Membership is initialized only once per app start
            LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(ref _initializer, ref _isInitialized, ref _initializerLock);
        }

        private class SimpleMembershipInitializer
        {
            public SimpleMembershipInitializer()
            {
                try
                {
                    WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("ConnStringForWebSecurity", "UserProfile", "Id", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    throw new InvalidOperationException("Something is wrong", ex);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

2.Delete CodeFirst Classes from AcountModel.cs

3.Fix AccountCotroler.cs to work with your Model-first DbContext (ExternalLoginConfirmation(RegisterExternalLoginModel model, string returnUrl) method)

4.Define your "ConnStringForWebSecurity" connection string which is not same as that funky conn string for model-first db access, notice that we use provider System.Data.SqlClient not System.Data.EntityClient

 <connectionStrings>
         <add name="ModelFirstEntityFramework" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Context.csdl|res://*/Context.ssdl|res://*/Context.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider
 connection string=&quot;data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial
 Catalog=aspnet-MVC4;Integrated
 Security=SSPI;multipleactiveresultsets=True;App=EntityFramework&quot;"
 providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
         <add name="ConnStringForWebSecurity" connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=aspnet-MVC4;Integrated
 Security=SSPI" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
       </connectionStrings>

Achromatous

Thank you Mario! That raises a couple of questions regarding how the two DbContext connections cooperate with each other. I'll create new forum threads for those two questions. – Hermineherminia

The dual connection strings was the part I was missing in DbFirst! So essentialy the SimpleMembershipProvider helpers only work with classic connection strings and not EF connection strings. – Pokey

I'm new to the MVC world, and now I have the same problem...,what you mean in point 2, 3, please can you have a better explanation to newbie people like me, thanks in advance. – Herophilus

Answer 2

That's a bug in MVC 4. There's a workaround in this blog post.

As an action filter, InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute hooks into OnActionExecuting to perform the lazy initialization work, but this can be too late in the life cycle. The Authorize attribute will need the providers to be ready earlier if it needs to perform role based access checks (during OnAuthorization). In other words, if the first request to a site hits a controller action like the following:

[Authorize(Roles="Sales")]

.. then you’ll have an exception as the filter checks the user’s role but the providers aren’t initialized.

My recommendation is to remove ISMA from the project, and initialize WebSecurity during the application start event.

Foiled

Thanks Craig. When I first embarked on my quest to fuse my model-first entities with the SimpleMembership magic, I had, in fact, removed ISMA and moved the call to InitializeDatabaseConnection from the lazy initializer to the Application_Start method in Global.asax.cs. I just didn't want to complicate the scenario in my original posting with that detail. The "can't find the provider" exception happens whenever I try to lash up my model-first entity to SimpleMembership, whether I make the call in the lazy initializer or in Application_Start. – Hermineherminia

Yeah, solution with 30 lines of negative code! I like that. +1 – Pollster

Answer 3

1 - You need to enable migrations, prefereably with EntityFramework 5

2 - Move your

WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection", "UserProfile", "UserId", "EmailAddress", autoCreateTables: true); 

to your Seed method in your YourMvcApp/Migrations/Configuration.cs class

    protected override void Seed(UsersContext context)
    {
        WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection(
            "DefaultConnection",
            "UserProfile",
            "UserId",
            "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);

        if (!Roles.RoleExists("Administrator"))
            Roles.CreateRole("Administrator");

        if (!WebSecurity.UserExists("lelong37"))
            WebSecurity.CreateUserAndAccount(
                "lelong37",
                "password",
                new {Mobile = "[phone]", IsSmsVerified = false});

        if (!Roles.GetRolesForUser("lelong37").Contains("Administrator"))
            Roles.AddUsersToRoles(new[] {"lelong37"}, new[] {"Administrator"});
    }

Now EF5 will be in charge of creating your UserProfile table, after doing so you will call the WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection to only register SimpleMembershipProvider with the already created UserProfile table (In your case, you can replace the "UserProfile" parameter value with your custom table name), also tellling SimpleMembershipProvider which column is the UserId and UserName. I am also showing an example of how you can add Users, Roles and associating the two in your Seed method with custom UserProfile properties/fields e.g. a user's Mobile (number).

3 - Now when you run update-database from Package Manager Console, EF5 will provision your table with all your custom properties

For additional references please refer to this article with sourcecode: http://blog.longle.net/2012/09/25/seeding-users-and-roles-with-mvc4-simplemembershipprovider-simpleroleprovider-ef5-codefirst-and-custom-user-properties/

Works

Thanks Long Le. Unfortunately, my problem is that I'm using "model-first", not "code-first". As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) the "migrations" feature only applies to code-first, not to model-first. But the code examples for creating roles and users will be very helpful once I get the basic claptrap working! - Bob – Hermineherminia

Bob.as.SBS - well I'm glad that at least something in my answer was helpful to you, do you mind bumping upvoting this answer since it was of some assistance to you? - thanks – Works

Answer 4

this problem caused by WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection can't use connection string with System.Data.EntityClient provider name.

providing dual connection string isn't sound good, so you can generate the connection string for EF model first in the constructor in the partial class.

the code is look like bellow

public partial class MyDataContext 
{
    private static string GenerateConnectionString(string connectionString)
    {
        var cs = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager
                     .ConnectionStrings[connectionString];

        SqlConnectionStringBuilder sb = 
             new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(cs.ConnectionString);
        EntityConnectionStringBuilder builder = 
             new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();
        builder.Provider = cs.ProviderName;
        builder.ProviderConnectionString = sb.ConnectionString;
        builder.Metadata = "res://*/MyDataContext.csdl|" +
              "res://*/MyDataContext.ssdl|res://*/MyDataContext.msl";
        return builder.ToString();
    }

    public MyDataContext(string connectionName) : 
          base(GenerateConnectionString(connectionName)) { }
}

with this trick you can use single connection string on your web config, but one problem you can't use default constructor on your datacontext, instead you should seed connection string name everywhere when you instantiate the datacontext. but it is not a big problem when you use dependency injection pattern.

Sumerlin

Answer 5

I´m not able to work with EF and WebMatrix webSecurity class so to avoid this problem and go ahead:

Change my Ef model first to code first.

Change the connection string to use providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"(removing all the metadata information) or use the EF connection

In my case the model, data and web are different proyects so for me is not an issue to remove this information from the web.config on the web.project.

Nowadays websecuroty.initializedatabase dosen't run with EF connection string.

I wish this helps

Colombi