ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider Class

You can use client application services to validate users by using forms authentication. To enable forms authentication, you configure your application to use the ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider class. For more information, see How to: Configure Client Application Services.

After configuration, you can validate users by calling the static Membership.ValidateUser method, which internally calls the ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider.ValidateUser(String, String) method.

Forms authentication requires that the user specify their credentials through login controls provided by your application. You can retrieve the credentials and pass them to the Membership.ValidateUser method. You can also pass in empty strings or null to use a credentials provider. A credentials provider is an IClientFormsAuthenticationCredentialsProvider implementation specified in your application configuration file. You will typically implement the IClientFormsAuthenticationCredentialsProvider.GetCredentials method to display a login dialog box and return a populated ClientFormsAuthenticationCredentials object. Using a credentials provider enables you to share a single login dialog box among multiple applications.

The ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider.ValidateUser method authenticates users through the login service indicated by the ServiceUri property. The value of the ServiceUri property is typically retrieved from the application configuration file along with other configuration values. For more information, see How to: Configure Client Application Services.

If the user is successfully authenticated, the service provider sets the static Thread.CurrentPrincipal property to a new ClientRolePrincipal object that contains a new ClientFormsIdentity object that contains the user information. If a ClientRoleProvider is configured for your application, you can use the ClientRolePrincipal object to retrieve user role information from the roles service.

You can retrieve a reference to the current ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider instance through the static Membership.Provider property. You can use the membership provider reference to call the ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider.ValidateUser method directly. Additionally, you will need the membership provider reference to call the Logout method, which is not available in the MembershipProvider base class.

You cannot use the ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider class to create, delete, or modify membership information. To create, delete, or modify users, you must change the configuration of the login service on the server.

The following example code demonstrates how to use this method to validate the user by using an IClientFormsAuthenticationCredentialsProvider implementation.

private bool ValidateUsingCredentialsProvider()
{
    bool isAuthorized = false;
    try
    {
        ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider authProvider =
            System.Web.Security.Membership.Provider as
            ClientFormsAuthenticationMembershipProvider;

        // Call ValidateUser with empty strings in order to display the 
        // login dialog box configured as a credentials provider.
        isAuthorized = authProvider.ValidateUser(String.Empty, String.Empty);
    }
    catch (System.Net.WebException)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Unable to access the authentication service.",
            "Warning", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Warning);
    }
    if (!isAuthorized)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Unable to authenticate.", "Not logged in", 
            MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
        Application.Exit();
    }
    return isAuthorized;
}

.NET Framework

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

Other Resources