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You can use global events to integrate external user databases, and modify the authentication or authorization process. See the SecurityEvents section of the global event reference to learn more about the available options.
To set up custom authentication, implement a handler for the SecurityEvents.Authentication.Execute event. You can access the authentication data through the event handler's AuthenticationEventArgs parameter, which provides the following properties:
Once you complete the external authentication process in the handler's code, assign a matching UserInfo object to the AuthenticationEventArgs parameter's User property. If the authentication failed, set the property to null.
The following example demonstrates how to integrate external user authentication by handling security events:
Open your Kentico web project in Visual Studio.
Create a custom module class.
Override the module's OnInit method and assign a handler to the SecurityEvents.Authentication.Execute event:
using System.Data;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using CMS;
using CMS.DataEngine;
using CMS.Membership;
// Registers the custom module into the system
[assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(CustomAuthenticationModule))]
public class CustomAuthenticationModule : Module
{
// Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomAuthentication"
public CustomAuthenticationModule()
: base("CustomAuthentication")
{
}
// Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
protected override void OnInit()
{
base.OnInit();
// Assigns a handler to the SecurityEvents.Authenticate.Execute event
// This event occurs when users attempt to sign in on the website
SecurityEvents.Authenticate.Execute += OnAuthentication;
}
}Define the handler method within the module class:
private void OnAuthentication(object sender, AuthenticationEventArgs e)
{
// Checks if the user was authenticated by the default system. Only continues if authentication failed.
if (e.User == null)
{
// Object representing the external user
UserInfo externalUser = null;
// Gets the credentials entered during the authentication
string username = SqlHelper.EscapeQuotes(e.UserName);
string password = SqlHelper.EscapeQuotes(e.Password);
// Path to an XML database file
string xmlPath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/userdatabase.xml");
// Reads data from the external database
DataSet userData = new DataSet();
userData.ReadXml(xmlPath);
// Authenticates against the external database
DataRow[] rows = userData.Tables[0].Select("UserName = '" + username + "' AND Password='" + password + "'");
if (rows.Count() > 0)
{
// Creates a user record if external authentication is successful
externalUser = new UserInfo()
{
IsExternal = true,
UserName = e.UserName,
FullName = "ExternalUser Fullname",
Enabled = true
};
}
// Passes the object representing the user (or null if external authentication failed)
e.User = externalUser;
}
}Save the class.
The system now performs authentication according to user data from the external source if default authentication fails.
We recommend importing all external roles into the CMS_Role table of the Kentico database. You can then configure the appropriate permissions for these roles, and fully use the built-in security model together with external users.
If you need to implement custom security logic, create handlers for the available SecurityEvents. You can programmatically check if a user belongs to a role by calling the IsInRole(string roleName, string siteName) method for UserInfo objects.