ASP.NET Provider Model Support

dotConnect for SQL Server can be used in ASP.NET 2.0 provider model. It allows developers to write better structured applications and easily switch data storage in ASP.NET application from other media. For detailed information on the basics refer to MSDN whitepaper ASP.NET 2.0 Provider Model: Introduction to the Provider Model.

dotConnect for SQL Server implements the following providers: Membership, Session State, Role, Profile, Site Map, Web Event, and Personalization. This feature is available in Professional Edition only.

This topic provides information on how to set up ASP.NET application to use dotConnect for SQL Server as one of these providers. It consists of the following sections:

Note that dotConnect for SQL Server uses its own implementation of the ASP.NET Provider Model support. To avoid conflicts it uses database schema names that differ from the classic names.

Installation and setup

All providers are contained in Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.dll assembly. You have to add reference to this assembly in your project in order to use ASP.NET provider model. Another condition for the providers to function properly is existence of certain database objects. Before using ASP.NET providers you have to run the script InstallWebTables.sql against database you wish to use. The script can be found in folder \Program Files\Devart\dotConnect\SQL Server\.

During the installation process dotConnect for SQL Server adds new entries in machine.config file. They are used by web sites when the settings are not overridden with local Web.config file. You can choose to keep the settings in machine.config, in which case they will be used for all web sites, or in Web.config files, where you can set up specific parameters. Note that the default connection string in the machine.config is incorrect, so you will want to adjust or override it.

When you redefine an identifier in Web.config file, you have to add remove keyword in the appropriate section, as shown below: 

			  <remove name="SqlServices" />

			  <add name="SqlServices" connectionString="User Id=sa;Server=localhost;Initial
			Catalog=Test" />

This example demonstrates how to adjust connection string parameters. By default dotConnect for SQL Server creates a stub connection string with name SqlServices.

You can also configure your site with standard Control Panel applet "ASP.NET Configuration Settings". To open it, navigate to Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services, then choose a site or a virtual directory, open its properties, switch to ASP.NET, and click Edit Configuration. This dialog provides control over various site settings, including connection string.

Membership provider

The fundamental job of a membership provider is to interface with data sources containing data regarding a site's registered users, and to provide methods for creating users, deleting users, verifying login credentials, changing passwords, and so on. The .NET Framework's System.Web.Security namespace includes a class named MembershipUser that defines the basic attributes of a membership user and that a membership provider uses to represent individual users.

To access this functionality use Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerMembershipProvider class. It behaves as described in reference for System.Web.Security.MembershipProvider class. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerMembershipProvider. 

<configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="SqlServices"
         connectionString="User Id=sa;Server=localhost;Initial Catalog=Test" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <system.web>
    ...
    <membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlServerMembershipProvider"
      userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15">
      <providers>
        <add
          name="AspNetSqlServerMembershipProvider"
          type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerMembershipProvider"
          connectionStringName="SqlServices"
          enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
          enablePasswordReset="true"
          requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
          requiresUniqueEmail="false"
          passwordFormat="Hashed"
          maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5"
          passwordAttemptWindow="10" />
      </providers>
    </membership>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Role provider

The fundamental job of a role provider is to interface with data sources containing role data mapping users to roles, and to provide methods for creating roles, deleting roles, adding users to roles, and so on. Given a user name, the role manager relies on the role provider to determine what role or roles the user belongs to. The role manager also implements administrative methods such as Roles.CreateRole and Roles.AddUserToRole by calling the underlying methods in the provider.

To access this functionality use Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerRoleProvider class. It behaves as described in reference for System.Web.Security.RoleProvider class. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlRoleProvider. Note that you can configure the SqlRoleProvider to use the same database and user information as the SqlMembershipProvider in order to use a single database for authentication and authorization information. 

<configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="SqlServices"
         connectionString="User Id=sa;Server=localhost;Initial Catalog=Test" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <system.web>
    ...
    <roleManager defaultProvider="AspNetSqlServerRoleProvider"
      enabled="true"
      cacheRolesInCookie="true"
      cookieName=".ASPROLES"
      cookieTimeout="30"
      cookiePath="/"
      cookieProtection="All" >
      <providers>
        <add
          name="AspNetSqlServerRoleProvider"
          type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerRoleProvider"
          connectionStringName="SqlServices" />
      </providers>
    </roleManager>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Profile provider

The fundamental job of a profile provider is to write profile property values supplied by ASP.NET to persistent profile data sources, and to read the property values back from the data source when requested by ASP.NET.

Unlike Session State provider, Profile provider is a typed structured data storage. It supports both registered and anonymous users. Profile providers also implement methods that allow consumers to manage profile data sources - for example, to delete profiles that haven't been accessed since a specified date.

The user profile is accessed using the Profile property of the current HttpContext object. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerProfileProvider. 

<configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="SqlServices"
         connectionString="User Id=sa;Server=localhost;Initial Catalog=Test" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <system.web>
    ...
    <profile defaultProvider="AspNetSqlServerProfileProvider" >
      <providers>
        <add
          name="AspNetSqlServerProfileProvider"
          type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerProfileProvider"
          connectionStringName="SqlServices" />
      </providers>
      <properties>
        <add name="ZipCode" />
        <add name="CityAndState" />
      </properties>
    </profile>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Here ZipCode and CityAndState are examples of profile elements. For detailed information on how to construct properties section refer to MSDN.

Session State provider

The session-state store provider is called by the SessionStateModule class during the processing of an ASP.NET page to communicate with the data store for the storage and retrieval of session variables and related session information such as the time-out value. Session data within each ASP.NET application is stored separately for each SessionID property. ASP.NET applications do not share session data.

For information on how to employ this functionality refer to ASP.NET Session State topic in MSDN. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerSessionStateStore. 

<configuration>
  <appSettings/>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="SqlServices"
         connectionString="User Id=sa;Server=localhost;Initial Catalog=Test"/>
  </connectionStrings>
  <system.web>
    <sessionState
      cookieless="true"
      regenerateExpiredSessionId="true"
      mode="Custom"
      customProvider="SqlServerSessionProvider">
      <providers>
        <add name="SqlServerSessionProvider"
          type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerSessionStateStore"
          connectionStringName="SqlSessionServices"
          writeExceptionsToEventLog="false"/>
      </providers>
    </sessionState>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Site Map provider

Site Map provider provides the interface between ASP.NET's data-driven site-navigation features and site map data sources. The fundamental job of SqlServerSiteMapProvider is to read site map data from a data source and build an upside-down tree of SiteMapNode objects, and to provide methods for retrieving nodes from the site map. Each node in the tree represents one node in the site map. Node properties such as Title, Url, and ChildNodes define the characteristics of each node and allow the tree to be navigated in any direction.

To access this functionality use Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerSiteMapProvider class. It behaves as described in reference for System.Web.SiteMaProvider class. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerSiteMaProvider. 

<system.web>
  <siteMap defaultProvider="SqlServerSiteMapProvider">
    <providers>
      <add name="SqlServerSiteMapProvider"
           type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerSiteMapProvider,
                 Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web, Version=2.15.57.0, Culture=neutral,
                 PublicKeyToken=09AF7300EEC23701"
           connectionStringName="ConnectionString"
           securityTrimmingEnabled="true"
           />
    </providers>
  </siteMap>
</system.web>

Web Event provider

Web Event provider provides the interface between ASP.NET's health monitoring subsystem and data sources that log or further process the events ("Web events") fired by that subsystem.

To access this functionality use Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerWebEventProvider class. It behaves as described in reference for System.Web.Management.WebEventProvider class. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerWebEventProvider. Note that proper use of the provider also requires many other subsections of healthMonitoring to be correctly configured. 

<system.web>
  <healthMonitoring enabled="true" heartbeatInterval="0">
    ...
    <providers>
      <clear/>
      <add name="SqlServerWebEventProvider"
           type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerWebEventProvider,
                 Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web, Version=2.15.57.0, Culture=neutral,
                 PublicKeyToken=09AF7300EEC23701"
           connectionStringName="ConnectionString"
           maxEventDetailsLength="1073741823"
           buffer="false"
           bufferMode="Notification" />
    </providers>
    ...
  </healthMonitoring>
<system.web>

Personalization provider

The fundamental job of a personalization provider is to provide persistent storage for personalization state regarding the content and layout of web pages.

To access this functionality use Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerPersonalizationProvider class. It behaves as described in reference for System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.PersonalizationProvider class. The following example shows the Web.config file for an ASP.NET application configured to use SqlServerPersonalizationProvider. 

<system.web>
    <webParts>
      <personalization defaultProvider="WebPartProvider">
        <providers >
          <add name="WebPartProvider"
               connectionStringName="ConnectionString"
               type="Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.Providers.SqlServerPersonalizationProvider,
                     Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web, Version=2.15.57.0, Culture=neutral,
                     PublicKeyToken=09af7300eec23701" />
        </providers>
      </personalization>
    </webParts>
<system.web>

Deployment

To deploy ASP.NET applications written with dotConnect for SQL Server you should register run-time assemblies Devart.Data.dll, Devart.Data.SqlServer.dll, and Devart.Data.SqlServer.Web.dll at Global Assembly Cache (GAC) for appropriate framework or place it in the folder of your application (Bin folder for web projects).

Also place App_Licenses.dll assembly in the Bin folder. For more information about this assembly refer to Licensing topic of dotConnect for SqlServer documentation.

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