Question

I’m developing a MVC3 application that will require a user to be authenticated against an AD. I know that there is the option in MVC3 to create an Intranet Application that automatically authenticates a user against an AD, but it uses Windows Authentication and automatically logs them on. This application may be accessed on ‘Open’ workstations where the user will need to enter their Domain Username and Password. Any examples or online tutorial would be great. An example project would be exceptional.

Answer 1

You can use the standard Internet application template with forms authentication and insert an ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider into the web.config:

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="ADConnectionString" connectionString="LDAP://YOUR_AD_CONN_STRING" />
</connectionStrings>

<system.web>
    <authentication mode="Forms">
        <forms name=".ADAuthCookie" loginUrl="~/Account/LogOn"
               timeout="15" slidingExpiration="false" protection="All" />
    </authentication>
    <membership defaultProvider="MY_ADMembershipProvider">
        <providers>
            <clear />
            <add name="MY_ADMembershipProvider" 
                 type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider" 
                 connectionStringName="ADConnectionString"
                 attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName" />
        </providers>
    </membership>
</system.web>

In this way you get the Internet application template login form, and it validates against AD for you.

Then it’s just a matter of some AccountController cleanup to remove reset password/change password/register functionality leaving just Login.