Question

I have the following ntier app: MVC > Services > Repository > Domain. I am using Forms authentication. Is it safe to use Thread.CurrentPrincipal outside of my MVC layer to get the currently logged in user of my application or should I be using HttpContext.Current.User?

The reason I ask is there seems to be some issues around Thread.CurrentPrincipal, but I am cautious to add a reference to System.Web outside of my MVC layer in case I need to provide a non web font end in the future.

Update

I have been following the advice recieved so far to pass the username into the Service as part of the params to the method being called and this has lead to a refinement of my original question. I need to be able to check if the user is in a particular role in a number of my Service and Domain methods. There seems to be a couple of solutions to this, just wondering which is the best way to proceed:

1. Pass the whole HttpContext.Current.User as a param instead of just the username.
2. Call Thread.CurrentPrincipal outside of my web tier and use that. But how do I ensure it is equal to HttpContext.Current.User?
3. Stick to passing in the username as suggested so far and then use Roles.IsUserInRole. The problem with this approach is that it requires a ref to System.Web which I feel is not correct outside of my MVC layer.

How would you suggest I proceed?

Answer 1

I wouldn’t do either, HttpContext.Current.User is specific to your web layer.

Why not inject the username into your service layer?