ASP.NET AJAX username availability check

ASP.NET AJAX username availability check with UpdatePanel

ASP.NET AJAX username availability check without UpdatePanel

I used UpdatePanel in our project and it works alright. I didn’t read either of these posts when I did it. It was not too hard to figure out even though I did remember myself having some issues. However, the web service method is much much better and well worth the time to learn and implement.

Great great posts from both sites!

MSDN – Providers General Overview

A series of MSDN articles on ASP.NET Providers:

• Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Providers: Introduction
• Membership Providers
• Role Providers
• Site Map Providers
• Session State Providers
• Profile Providers
• Web Event Providers
• Web Parts Personalization Providers

Couple additional resources:

• MSDN – Provider Toolkit
• 4GuysFromRolla – A Look at ASP.NET 2.0’s Provider Model

ASP.NET Profile

• ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – Storing User Profiles
• MSDN – SqlProfileProvider Class
• MSDN – ASP.NET Profile Properties
  • MSDN – ASP.NET Profile Properties Overview
  • MSDN – ASP.NET User Identification for ASP.NET Profile Properties
  • MSDN – Defining ASP.NET Profile Properties
  • MSDN – ASP.NET Profile Provider
  • MSDN – Implementing a Profile Provider
    • MSDN – How to: Build and Run the Profile Provider Example
      • MSDN – Profile Provider Implementation Example
  • MSDN – Securing Profile Properties
• Table Profile Provider and Stored Procedure Profile Provider - the easiest to understand and adopt; works extremely well
• TechTarget.com – Creating custom ASP.NET 2.0 profile providers – very interesting way of implementing it\
• OdeToCode.com – Profiles in ASP.NET 2.0 – A pretty thorough examination of the default SqlProfileProvider
• EggHeadCafe.com – Integrating Customized Roles, Membership and Profiles in ASP.NET 2.0

ASP.NET Roles

• MSDN – Roles Class – first place to consult if anything!
• MSDN – Role Provider
• MSDN – How To: Use Role Manager in ASP.NET 2.0
• MSDN – roleManager Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)
• ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – Using the Membership and Role Manager APIs

4GuysFromRolla – Admin Page

Admin pages are necessary for websites with login capabilities. Just couple links on the topic:

• 4GuysFromRolla – Rolling Your Own Website Administration Tool – Part 1
• 4GuysFromRolla – Rolling Your Own Website Administration Tool – Part 2

CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart”. It’s those distorted text in almost all the sites that require sign up these days, blog, emails, forums, etc.

• The Official CAPTCHA Site
• An ASP.NET Framework for Human Interactive Proofs
• The Code Project: CAPTCHA Image – A fundamental approach to create CAPTCHA images using C# library classes
• The Code Project: A CAPTCHA Server Control for ASP.NET – in VB.NET
• Same control as the one above, but in C#, from CodePlex
  Add the following to web.config:
  <httpHandlers>
  <add verb=”GET” path=”CaptchaImage.aspx” type=”WebControlCaptcha.CaptchaImageHandler, WebControlCaptcha” />
  </httpHandlers>

  ---

  <pages>
  <controls>
  <add tagPrefix=”captcha” namespace=”WebControlCaptcha” assembly=”WebControlCaptcha”/>
  </controls>
  </pages>
• Finding Spambots with .NET and AI

ASP.NET Membership

General knowledge:

• MSDN Security Developer Center
• ASP.NET 2.0 Security Guildlines
• ASP.NET Membership, Roles, Forms Authentication, and Security Resources
• ASP.NET Authentication
• ASP.NET Authorization
• System.Web.Security Namespace

Membership:

• Introduction to Membership
• MSDN – Membership Class
• MSDN – MembershipUser Class
• MSDN – MembershipUserCollection Class

ASP.NET Security Tutorials

There are so much information on ASP.NET Membership/Roles/Login/Profile, as you might have noticed the number of posts I gathered under the “Membership” category. Our of everything, Microsoft’s official Security tutorials would be the place I choose to start, and more of these tutorials are still actively being added.

1. Security Basics and ASP.NET Support
2. An overview of Forms Authentication
3. Forms Authentication Configuration and Advanced Topics
4. Creating the Membership Schema in SQL Server
5. Creating User Accounts
6. Validating User Credentials Against Membership User Store
7. User-Based Authorization
8. Storing Additional User Information
9. Creating and Managing Roles
10. Assigning Roles to Users
11. Role-Based Authorization
12. Building an Interface to Select One User Account from Many
13. Recovering and Changing Passwords
14. Unlocking and Approving User Accounts

Login Controls

There are 7 Login Controls in Visual Studio Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.

ASP.NET Login Controls Overview

1. Login – provides user interface (UI) elements for logging in to a Web site.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – Login
2. LoginView – displays the appropriate content template for a given user, based on the user’s authentication status and role membership.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – LoginView
3. PasswordRecovery – provides user interface (UI) elements that enable a user to recover or reset a lost password and receive it in e-mail.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – PasswordRecovery
   • CodeProject – Password Recovery
4. LoginStatus – detects the user’s authentication state and toggles the state of a link to log in to or log out of a Web site.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – LoginStatus
5. LoginName – displays the value of the System.Web.UI.Page.User.Identity.Name property
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – LoginName
6. CreateUserWizard – provides a user interface for creating new Web site user accounts.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – CreateUserWizard
   • 4GuysFromRolla – Customizing the CreateUserWizard Control
7. ChangePassword – provides a user interface that enable users to change their Web site password.
   • ASP.NET Quickstart Tutorials – ChangePassword

4GuysFromRolla – Membership, Roles, and Profile

There is a series of 9 articles on ASP.NET’s Membership, Roles, and Profile on 4GuysFromRolla:

Examining ASP.NET 2.0’s Membership, Roles, and Profile (There is a link to the Provider Model’s article as well. )

• Part 1 – learn about how the membership features make providing user accounts on your website a breeze. This article covers the basics of membership, including why it is needed, along with a look at the SqlMembershipProvider and the security Web controls.
• Part 2 – master how to create roles and assign users to roles. This article shows how to setup roles, using role-based authorization, and displaying output on a page depending upon the visitor’s roles.
• Part 3 – see how to add the membership-related schemas to an existing database using the ASP.NET SQL Server Registration Tool (aspnet_regsql.exe).
• Part 4 – improve the login experience by showing more information messages for users who log on with invalid credentials; also, see how to keep a log of invalid login attempts.
• Part 5 – learn how to customize the Login control. Adjust its appearance using properties and templates; customize the authentication logic to include a CAPTCHA.
• Part 6 – capture additional user-specific information using the Profile system. Learn about the built-in SqlProfileProvider.
• Part 7 – the Membership, Roles, and Profile systes are all built using the provider model, which allows for their implementations to be highly customized. Learn how to create a custom Profile provider that persists user-specific settings to XML files.
• Part 8 – learn how to use the Microsoft Access-based providers for the Membership, Roles, and Profile systems. With these providers, you can use an Access database instead of SQL Server.
• Part 9 – when working with Membership, you have the option of using .NET’s APIs or working directly with the specified provided. This article examines the pros and cons of both approaches and examines the SqlMembershipProvider in more detail.