Question

I will create an ASP.NET Web Application like this;

1. Users can login their own username and password.
2. Users can file upload their own folder (I define the folders manually), and also they can see all files in their own page and they can download them.

I think I can use an architecture like this;

1. I should use ASP.NET Login Controls, we all agree with that. But I also should use C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regsql.exe and ASP.NET Web site Administration Tool? What does exactly aspnet_regsql.exe do? What does Administration Tool do? They are (Login controls + aspnet_regsql.exe + Administration Tool) only I need for creating a user login system?
2. For file upload I think to use File Upload control. Then, For example; if I have a user “A”, folder should be like http://ourserver/A. I have no idea how can I upload file to specific folder. And how can I show to users their own uploaded files? (Also users should download them) Is there any asp.net control for doing this ?

EDIT: I prefer step by step explanation rather than giving some code. I want to also understand what these applications are doing ?

Answer 1

1) If you run the regsql tool, it will popup a screen asking for some sql information and then create a set of tables relative to membership etc. If you start a basic MVC 3 application, it comes with an account controller, login, logout, forgot password all wired up. This talks to that database. Your alternative is to create a custom membership provider, there are lots of tutorials out there for doing that. You can control more things with the custom membership provider, but it’s a bit more work.

2) AmRans example code is perfect for saving the actual file. As far as the folder for the given user goes, then I would probably configure a base directory in your web.config, then;

if( Directory.Create( Path.Combine( baseDirectory, UserDirectory)).Exists) {

}

although if you’re using .NET 2, then that might remain;

string savePath = Path.Combine( baseDirectory, UserDirectory);

Directory.Create( savePath );

if( Directory.Exists( savePath)) {
}

For viewing of those files, if the user is logged in, you can query the save directory + username and list out all the files in that.