Adding custom fields to users

Custom fields can help you store and organize additional data related to users. For example, if you need to gather data not collected in the system by default, add custom fields and use them to store any additional information required.

This page describes how to:

• Add custom fields to user objects
• Access the added fields from the Kentico.Membership ASP.NET Identity implementation

Adding custom fields to users

Custom fields may store values such as text, date and time, and boolean values. To define custom fields:

1. Open the Modules application.
2. Edit () the Membership module.
3. Switch to the Classes tab.
4. Edit () the User class.
5. Switch to the Fields tab.
6. Create new fields based on your requirements using the field editor.
7. Click Save.

You have added custom fields for the user object in Kentico. In the administration interface, added custom fields are displayed on a separate Custom fields tab when editing users in the Users application.

Accessing custom user fields in Kentico’s ASP.NET Identity implementation

Kentico MVC applications use an implementation of the ASP.NET Identity membership system and the OWIN standard (provided in the Kentico.Membership namespace, see Integrating Kentico membership for detailed information). 

By default, the implementation uses the Kentico.Membership.User type to represent users. Objects of this type wrap CMS.Membership.UserInfo objects (which represent the user in Kentico), and facilitate the transfer of user data between the Identity implementation and internal Kentico logic. 

If you defined any custom user fields that you wish to handle via Kentico.Membership types (e.g., when creating or updating user information, performing authentication or authorization, etc.), you need to ensure proper mapping between the UserInfo object and the User object.

1. Open the MVC project in Visual Studio.

2. Create a new class that inherits from Kentico.Membership.User.

3. Declare properties that correspond to the custom fields you specified in the administration interface. 

   Besides exposing custom fields added to the user object via the administration interface, you can also expose existing fields of the user object that are not accessible by default via the Kentico.Membership.User type. For example, the MiddleName user field or advanced user fields from the UserSettings class. See the sample ExtendedUser class below for an example.

4. Override the MapFromUserInfo and MapToUserInfo methods and:

   • Call the base implementation of the methods. This maps all properties of the Kentico.Membership.User class such as FirstName and Email.

   • Get and set values of the custom properties you wish to have available using UserInfo.GetValue and UserInfo.SetValue. 

     Declaring an ExtendedUser class that extends the default Kentico.Membership.User object

     Copy

     
     
     
       using CMS.Membership;
     
       using Kentico.Membership;
     
       namespace MembershipCustomization
       {
           // Extends the default Kentico.Membership.User object
           public class ExtendedUser : User
           {
               // Exposes the existing 'MiddleName' property of the 'UserInfo' object
               public string MiddleName
               {
                   get;
                   set;
               }
     
               // Property that corresponds to a custom field specified in the administration interface
               public string CustomField
               {
                   get;
                   set;
               }
     
               // Ensures field mapping between Kentico's user objects and the Kentico.Membership ASP.NET Identity implementation
               // Called when retrieving users from Kentico via Kentico.Membership.KenticoUserManager<TUser>
               public override void MapFromUserInfo(UserInfo source)
               {
                   // Calls the base class implementation of the MapFromUserInfo method
                   base.MapFromUserInfo(source);
     
                   // Maps the 'MiddleName' property to the extended user object
                   MiddleName = source.MiddleName;
     
                   // Sets the value of the 'CustomField' property
                   CustomField = source.GetValue<string>("CustomField", null);
               }
     
               // Ensures field mapping between Kentico's user objects and the Kentico.Membership ASP.NET Identity implementation
               // Called when creating or updating users using Kentico.Membership.KenticoUserManager<TUser>
               public override void MapToUserInfo(UserInfo target)
               {
                   // Calls the base class implementation of the MapToUserInfo method
                   base.MapToUserInfo(target);
     
                   // Maps the 'MiddleName' property to the target 'UserInfo' object
                   target.MiddleName = MiddleName;
     
                   // Sets the value of the 'CustomField' custom user field
                   target.SetValue("CustomField", CustomField);
               }
           }
       }
     
     
       

5. In the Owin startup pipeline, register new or add additional KenticoUserManager, KenticoUserStore, and KenticoSignInManager types from the Kentico.Membership namespace. The types need to specify the extended user object as their generic parameter (ExtendedUser in this case). Register these generic types instead of the original Manager and Store types (which do not have the Kentico prefix).

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    using Owin;
   
    using CMS.SiteProvider;
   
    using Kentico.Membership;
   
    public partial class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            // Registers Kentico.Membership Identity types with the 'ExtendedUser' user object
            app.CreatePerOwinContext(() => KenticoUserManager<ExtendedUser>.Initialize(app, new KenticoUserManager<ExtendedUser>(new KenticoUserStore<ExtendedUser>(SiteContext.CurrentSiteName))));
            app.CreatePerOwinContext<KenticoSignInManager<ExtendedUser>>(KenticoSignInManager<ExtendedUser>.Create);
   
            ...
        }
    }
   
   
    

6. When retrieving the registered types from the Owin context via HttpContext.GetOwinContext().Get, retrieve the type with the associated generic parameter, for example:

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    KenticoSignInManager<ExtendedUser> KenticoSignInManager = HttpContext.GetOwinContext().Get<KenticoSignInManager<ExtendedUser>>();
   
   
    

   This ensures that you retrieve the type capable of working with the extended user object.

The Kentico.Membership Identity implementation is now able to work with the extended user object together with any additional properties and logic it contains.