Question

Can the SimpleMembershipProvider be used with a ApiController or is it for classical web pages only? When trying to use it, I get the error “Membership.Provider” property must be an instance of ExtendedMembershipProvider.

If it is compatible, how can I call the .ValidateUser method without creating a cookie like WebSecurity.Login does?

UPDATE

I got it running within a Web API scaffolding after the following changes:

1. Web.config: outcomment the default membership & role provider within the system.web tag, as inserted by the Web API scaffolding.

2. Change the template InitializeSimpleMebershipAttribute from a Mvc attribute to System.Web.Http.Filters. The attributes hook directly into the controller and Mvc doesn’t work for an ApiController.

However, the WebSecurity class is intermingled with forms authentication and the .Login method attaches a cookie to the http-header. WebMatrix.WebData exposes SimpleMembershipProvider, but there is no .ValidateUser to use it in a neutral way regarding authentication.

Is SimpleMembership actually intended to be used with anything else than forms authentication? I cannot find a clear answer to that on the web.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think I got the answer. See the remarks section at the end of this page.

After initializing a SimpleMembershipProvider with the WebMatrix.WebData methods, the System.Web.Security.Membership class is available, just as with the old MembershipProvider. Instead of using the WebSecurity class for validation, Membership.ValidateUser is available and no cookie attached to the http header.