Question

Getting a weird error after I’ve tried to extend the MVC Membership provider in my code-first MVC3 project.

The errors are:

EntityType 'MembershipUser' has no key defined. Define the key for this EntityType.

EntitySet "MembershipUsers" is based on type "MembershipUser" that has no keys defined

I have set up the standard asp.net membership, but added an extra table & model called UserDetails, where the foreign key is the UserId field in aspnet_Users.

Once the entry has been inserted in to the users table, I get the UserId and try to enter the other details in the Useretails table, but that is when these errors appear. Here is the other relevant code. The AccountController:

if (createStatus == MembershipCreateStatus.Success)
            {                    
                //Add other user details
                UserRepository _user = new UserRepository();
                UserDetails userDetails = new UserDetails();

                userDetails.EmployeeNumber = Request.Form["EmployeeNumber"];
                userDetails.Title = Request.Form["Title"];
                userDetails.FirstName = Request.Form["FirstName"];
                userDetails.Initials = Request.Form["Initials"];
                userDetails.Surname = Request.Form["Surname"];
                userDetails.Nino = Request.Form["Nino"];

                _user.AddUserDetails(userDetails, model.Email);
                return RedirectToAction("Welcome", "Home");
            }

UserRepository:

    public MembershipUser GetUserByEmail(string email)
    {
        MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(email);
        return user;
    }


    public void AddUserDetails(UserDetails userDetails, string email)
    {
        MembershipUser user = GetUserByEmail(email);
        Guid userGuid = (Guid)Membership.GetUser(email).ProviderUserKey;
        userDetails.UserID = userGuid; //Add UserID foreign key
        using (IntranetApplication db = new IntranetApplication())
        {
            db.UserDetails.Add(userDetails);
            db.SaveChanges();
        }
    }

The error fires on the db.SaveChanges line.

As MemberShip user is a class itself and not part of entity framework, does anyone know how I can set UserID as a primary key? I’ve checked in the database and it is already set, so don’t know how i can amend it in the code.

Thanks – any help appreciated

Answer 1

To expand on what Craig is saying, I know it’s convenient to link against the membership tables, but it’s not necessary. Write your queries to accept the user id field as a parameter, then pass it from the Membership.GetUser().ProviderUserKey.

Also, don’t be tempted to key your tables on UserName, as that can create a security problem if one user creates a user with a specific name, then is deleted, then a new user with the same name is created.