DB-First authentication confusion with ASP.NET Web API 2 + EF6

Question

I need to create a Web API C# application for an existing MySQL database. I've managed to use Entity Framework 6 to bind every database table to a RESTful API (that allows CRUD operations).

I want to implement a login/registration system (so that I can implement roles and permissions in the future, and restrict certain API requests).

The MySQL database I have to use has a table for users (called user) that has the following self-explanatory columns:

• id
• email
• username
• password_hash

It seems that the de-facto standard for authentication is ASP.Net Identity. I have spent the last hour trying to figure out how to make Identity work with an existing DB-First Entity Framework setup.

If I try to construct ApplicationUser instances storing user instances (entities from the MySQL database) to retrieve user data, I get the following error:

The entity type ApplicationUser is not part of the model for the current context.

I assume I need to store Identity data in my MySQL database, but couldn't find any resource on how to do that. I've tried completely removing the ApplicationUser class and making my user entity class derive from IdentityUser, but calling UserManager.CreateAsync resulted in LINQ to Entities conversion errors.

How do I setup authentication in a Web API 2 application, having an existing user entity?

Heda

Answer 1

You say:

I want to implement a login/registration system (so that I can implement roles and permissions in the future, and restrict certain API requests).

How do I setup authentication in a Web API 2 application, having an existing user entity?

It definitely means that you DO NOT need ASP.NET Identity. ASP.NET Identity is a technology to handle all users stuffs. It actually does not "make" the authentication mechanism. ASP.NET Identity uses OWIN Authentication mechanism, which is another thing.

What you are looking for is not "how to use ASP.NET Identity with my existing Users table", but "How to configure OWIN Authentication using my existing Users table"

To use OWIN Auth follow these steps:

Install the packages:

Owin
Microsoft.AspNet.Cors
Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client
Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Core
Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Owin
Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.WebHost
Microsoft.Owin
Microsoft.Owin.Cors
Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb
Microsoft.Owin.Security
Microsoft.Owin.Security.OAuth

Create Startup.cs file inside the root folder (example):

make sure that [assembly: OwinStartup] is correctly configured

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(YourProject.Startup))]
namespace YourProject
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            var config = new HttpConfiguration();
            //other configurations

            ConfigureOAuth(app);
            app.UseCors(Microsoft.Owin.Cors.CorsOptions.AllowAll);
            app.UseWebApi(config);
        }

        public void ConfigureOAuth(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            var oAuthServerOptions = new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions()
            {
                AllowInsecureHttp = true,
                TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/api/security/token"),
                AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromHours(2),
                Provider = new AuthorizationServerProvider()
            };

            app.UseOAuthAuthorizationServer(oAuthServerOptions);
            app.UseOAuthBearerAuthentication(new OAuthBearerAuthenticationOptions());
        }
    }

    public class AuthorizationServerProvider : OAuthAuthorizationServerProvider
    {
        public override async Task ValidateClientAuthentication(OAuthValidateClientAuthenticationContext context)
        {
            context.Validated();
        }

        public override async Task GrantResourceOwnerCredentials(OAuthGrantResourceOwnerCredentialsContext context)
        {
            context.OwinContext.Response.Headers.Add("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", new[] { "*" });

            try
            {
                //retrieve your user from database. ex:
                var user = await userService.Authenticate(context.UserName, context.Password);

                var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(context.Options.AuthenticationType);

                identity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, user.Name));
                identity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Email, user.Email));

                //roles example
                var rolesTechnicalNamesUser = new List<string>();

                if (user.Roles != null)
                {
                    rolesTechnicalNamesUser = user.Roles.Select(x => x.TechnicalName).ToList();

                    foreach (var role in user.Roles)
                        identity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Role, role.TechnicalName));
                }

                var principal = new GenericPrincipal(identity, rolesTechnicalNamesUser.ToArray());

                Thread.CurrentPrincipal = principal;

                context.Validated(identity);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                context.SetError("invalid_grant", "message");
            }
        }
    }
}

Use the [Authorize] attribute to authorize the actions.

Call api/security/token with GrantType, UserName, and Password to get the bearer token. Like this:

"grant_type=password&username=" + username + "&password=" password;

Send the token within the HttpHeader Authorization as Bearer "YOURTOKENHERE". Like this:

headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + token }

Hope it helps!

Divorcement

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. Sorry if my question was unclear, but I was confused by the "role" of ASP.NET Identity. – Heda

You are welcome mate. If you have some trouble on the implementation, don't hesitate to comment here – Divorcement

Hey, could you tell me what would be the userService object in your code above? Just a custom class object which would connect to my DB Context and return my custom User from DB? The User doesn't have to inherit after IUser or anything? – Scopophilia

Yes, it is a custom class which retrieves the user from database. And yes, User doesn't have to inherit from anything, because in the above example, Identity is not being used. – Divorcement

Thanks a lot! I finally managed to get the authentication working! The problem was also that many things happen automatically and are not so obvious like automatic search of OWIN Startup called class in assemblies. – Scopophilia

I also had to install package Microsoft.Owin.Cors for this to work – Vegetarianism

@FabioLuz GrantResourceOwnerCredentials method not hitting? Am i missing something? – Kleeman

It throws me an error: "No HTTP resource was found that matches the request URI 'localhost:50013/api/security/…". Any ideas? – Capitulum

Can I put logged in UserId and retrieve it from the controller like User.Identity.GetUserId() – Sprat

Answer 2

Since your DB schema are not compatible with default UserStore You must implement your own UserStore and UserPasswordStore classes then inject them to UserManager. Consider this simple example:

First write your custom user class and implement IUser interface:

class User:IUser<int>
{
    public int ID {get;set;}
    public string Username{get;set;}
    public string Password_hash {get;set;}
    // some other properties 
}

Now author your custom UserStore and IUserPasswordStore class like this:

public class MyUserStore : IUserStore<User>, IUserPasswordStore<User>
{
    private readonly MyDbContext _context;

    public MyUserStore(MyDbContext context)
    {
        _context=context;
    }

    public Task CreateAsync(AppUser user)
    {
        // implement your desired logic such as
        // _context.Users.Add(user);
    }

    public Task DeleteAsync(AppUser user)
    {
        // implement your desired logic
    }

    public Task<AppUser> FindByIdAsync(string userId)
    {
        // implement your desired logic
    }

    public Task<AppUser> FindByNameAsync(string userName)
    {
        // implement your desired logic
    }

    public Task UpdateAsync(AppUser user)
    {
        // implement your desired logic
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        // implement your desired logic
    }

    // Following 3 methods are needed for IUserPasswordStore
    public Task<string> GetPasswordHashAsync(AppUser user)
    {
        // something like this:
        return Task.FromResult(user.Password_hash);
    }

    public Task<bool> HasPasswordAsync(AppUser user)
    {
        return Task.FromResult(user.Password_hash != null);
    }

    public Task SetPasswordHashAsync(AppUser user, string passwordHash)
    {
        user.Password_hash = passwordHash;
        return Task.FromResult(0);
    }
}

Now you have very own user store simply inject it to the user manager:

public class ApplicationUserManager: UserManager<User, int>
{
    public static ApplicationUserManager Create(IdentityFactoryOptions<ApplicationUserManager> options, IOwinContext context)
    {
         var manager = new ApplicationUserManager(new MyUserStore(context.Get<MyDbContext>()));
         // rest of code
    }
}

Also please note you must directly inherit your DB Context class from DbContext not IdentityDbContext since you have implemented own user store.

Timm