Tag Archive for 'asp.net'

SharePoint FBA: Basic “All Authenticated Users” Role Provider

When managing users and groups within a SharePoint Web application configured to use Windows Integrated Authentication,  there is a convenient “Add all authenticated users” link that adds a special Active Directory group – NT AUTHORITY\authenticated users – to the Users/Groups People Editor.  This group refers to any non-anonymous user, which if you ask me, seems like a pretty common group to have around.  However, when working within a SharePoint Web application configured to use Forms Based Authentication (FBA), this convenient group is no longer available.

When using FBA, the only “non-SharePoint” groups available to us are the roles exposed by an ASP.Net Role Provider.  If you are already using a custom Role Provider and are not able to make changes to it, then you can stop here.  This post is not for you.  If you are like me though, and are using FBA merely for authentication and are leveraging SharePoint for all authorization, then the single “All Authenticated Users” role is all I need from my Role Provider.  As a result, there is no need to use a heavy weight Role Provider (i.e., the SQL Role Provider) to accomplish this, but rather roll your own very dumb role provider.  There is only a single method that you will need to implement – GetRolesForUser – in which you can assume the user is already authenticated and always return the “All Authenticated Users” role for the user. Here is the Role Provider I am currently using:

using System;
using System.Web.Security;
 
namespace Trentacular.Web.Security
{
    public class SimpleAllAuthenticatedUsersRoleProvider : RoleProvider
    {
        public const string AllAuthenticatedUsersRoleName = "All Authenticated Users";
 
        public override string ApplicationName { get; set; }
 
        public override string[] GetRolesForUser(string username)
        {
            return new[] { AllAuthenticatedUsersRoleName };
        }
 
        #region Methods Not Implemented
 
        public override string[] GetAllRoles() { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override bool IsUserInRole(string username, string roleName) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override bool RoleExists(string roleName) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override void AddUsersToRoles(string[] usernames, string[] roleNames) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override void CreateRole(string roleName) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override bool DeleteRole(string roleName, bool throwOnPopulatedRole) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override string[] FindUsersInRole(string roleName, string usernameToMatch) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override string[] GetUsersInRole(string roleName) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        public override void RemoveUsersFromRoles(string[] usernames, string[] roleNames) { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
 
        #endregion
    }
}

After rolling your own role provider, you will need to register it in the web.config inside the <system.web> section as such:

<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="SimpleAllAuthenticatedUsersRoleProvider">
    <providers>
        <add name="SimpleAllAuthenticatedUsersRoleProvider" type="Trentacular.Web.Security.SimpleAllAuthenticatedUsersRoleProvider, Trentacular.Web, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" />
    </providers>
</roleManager>

Using jQuery with ASP.Net Demo Web site

I was recently asked to demonstrate how to use jQuery with ASP.Net, with a focus on AJAX.  So I spent a few hours and cooked up this demo web site.

The Web site demonstrates the following jQuery concepts:

  • Basic jQuery selectors and API usage
  • Wiring up javascript event handlers with jQuery
  • AJAX autocomplete textbox using the Autocomplete plugin
  • Maintaining AJAX navigation history and state using the History plugin
  • Loading dynamic html into a panel using the jQuery.load API function
  • Loading dynamic html into a modal dialog using the FaceBox plugin

The demo could be useful to both someone starting out with jQuery or an old-timer looking for some new AJAX approaches.  Let me know what you think.

Download

asp.net-jQuery-demo.zip
(Requires Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5)

Preview

Top 5 Most Useful SharePoint Links of the Month

So I just completed and released to production my first approval workflow application using ASP.Net forms and Visual Studio Workflow Designer. I have combed through hundreds of web pages working out many many kinks. These are the top 5 links for this month (measured on subjective scale of usefulness to me for completing my project):

Get Public Key Token Visual Studio Trick

SharePoint Workflow Basics

Design and Bind ASPX Forms to Workflow

Locked Workflow tasks Bug

WSS WebService DISCO and WSDL Generator

Great Reads by My Colleague Winston

I’m not sure how much exposure these posts are receiving, so I am posting them here because they are well worth the read:

On the WebForms vs MVC Debate

ASP.NET WebForms: As *Component Frameworks* Go, It’s Pretty Good

Winston Fassett is a previous manager of mine when I was working at ORIX USA, where building rapid applications for demanding financial analysts was our focus.  When I made the move to racenation.com, the founder soon after lured Winston to join us, and from the ground up we architected and developed what is racenation.com.  I have learned an immense amount from working with him and can safely say he is the sharpest developer I’ve been in contact with throughout my career.  Also check out his self-developed mindmapping tool MindTree, which I am using extensively for a variety of tasks from meeting notes to project management.