Question

I wonder if SimpleMembership keeps UserId somewhere, or if not, how to force it to keep, once derived data.

I have simple action:

    [Authorize(Roles="User")]
    public ActionResult Create()
    {
        var ownerId = WebSecurity.GetUserId(User.Identity.Name);
        return View()
    }

And my MiniProfiler says:

 DECLARE @0 nvarchar(4) = N'NICK'
 SELECT [UserId] FROM [UserProfile] WHERE (UPPER([UserName]) = @0)   

 DECLARE @0 int = 2
 SELECT r.RoleName FROM webpages_UsersInRoles u, webpages_Roles r Where 
 (u.UserId = @0 and u.RoleId = r.RoleId) GROUP BY RoleName 

 DECLARE @0 nvarchar(4) = N'NICK'
 SELECT [UserId] FROM [UserProfile] WHERE (UPPER([UserName]) = @0)  

So, I have duplicated query for UserId – first to get the role, second by calling WebSecurity.GetUserId(User.Identity.Name);. Is there a smart way to save UserId somewhere after calling [Authorize] ?

Answer 1

I usually wrap my users profiles in a session variable.

 public static userProfile UserInfo
 {
     get { return HttpContext.Current.Session["UserInfo"] as userProfile; }
     set { HttpContext.Current.Session["UserInfo"] = value; }
 }

after the user logins in query the UserProfile table and do

UserInfo = QueryAsClass; //you need to map your sql to an object

once there you can access it any time by doing

UserInfo.userId

I have the userProfile table as an object class in my application

Edit

I have this code that gets executed after a user logins

using (var db = new DBEntities())
    {
        var userId = WebSecurity.GetUserId(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name);
        if (userId == -1) return;
        SessionHelpers.UserInfo = db.userProfiles.Single(x => x.userId == userId);
    }

I’m using EF5 and I have the userProfile table in my model, so you’ll need to adapt this part if you’re not using EF.

When I need the userId I just do SessionHelpers.UserInfo.userId. This let’s me get all of the users profile info whenever I need it without requerying the database.

Of course if you change something in the user’s profile you will need to update your session variable as well.

You may need to have more advanced logic and check that the session isn’t null (which I’m doing elsewhere).