Integrating Kentico membership

Development model: MVC Portal Engine
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Kentico provides an integration API that allows you to work with Kentico membership data on websites presented by a separate MVC application. The API is available in the Kentico.Membership assembly and namespace, which is provided as part of the Kentico.AspNet.Mvc integration package.

You can set up the following scenarios:

  • Allow visitors to sign in with Kentico user accounts
  • Allow users to register new accounts from the MVC site (the user data is stored in the shared Kentico database)
  • Allow users to reset their passwords
  • Authorize actions based on Kentico roles
  • Use external services for authentication

The membership integration is based on ASP.NET Identity and the OWIN standard. As a result, you can work with user data through the standard approaches that you would use in any ASP.NET MVC application.

Integrating Kentico membership into your project

Before you can start working with Kentico membership data in your MVC application, you need to register the required API:

  1. Open your MVC project in Visual Studio.

  2. Install the Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb NuGet package.

  3. Add a Startup.Auth class to your project’s App_Start folder (or modify your existing authentication startup file):

    


 using System;
 using System.Web;
 using System.Web.Mvc;

 using Microsoft.Owin;
 using Microsoft.Owin.Security.Cookies;
 using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity;
 using Owin;

 using CMS.Helpers;
 using CMS.SiteProvider;

 using Kentico.Membership;

 // Assembly attribute that sets the OWIN startup class
 // This example sets the Startup class from the 'LearningKit.App_Start' namespace, not 'LearningKit.App_Start.Basic' used below
 // The active Startup class is defined in Startup.Auth.cs and additionally demonstrates registration of external authentication services
 [assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(LearningKit.App_Start.Startup))]

 namespace LearningKit.App_Start.Basic
 {
     public partial class Startup
     {
         // Cookie name prefix used by OWIN when creating authentication cookies
         private const string OWIN_COOKIE_PREFIX = ".AspNet.";

         public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
         {
             // Registers the Kentico.Membership identity implementation
             app.CreatePerOwinContext(() => UserManager.Initialize(app, new UserManager(new UserStore(SiteContext.CurrentSiteName))));
             app.CreatePerOwinContext<SignInManager>(SignInManager.Create);

             // Configures the authentication cookie
             UrlHelper urlHelper = new UrlHelper(HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext);
             app.UseCookieAuthentication(new CookieAuthenticationOptions
             {
                 AuthenticationType = DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ApplicationCookie,
                 // Fill in the name of your sign-in action and controller
                 LoginPath = new PathString(urlHelper.Action("SignIn", "Account")),
                 Provider = new CookieAuthenticationProvider
                 {
                     // Sets the return URL for the sign-in page redirect (fill in the name of your sign-in action and controller)
                     OnApplyRedirect = context => context.Response.Redirect(urlHelper.Action("SignIn", "Account")
                                                  + new Uri(context.RedirectUri).Query)
                 }
             });

             // Registers the authentication cookie with the 'Essential' cookie level
             // Ensures that the cookie is preserved when changing a visitor's allowed cookie level below 'Visitor'
             CookieHelper.RegisterCookie(OWIN_COOKIE_PREFIX + DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ApplicationCookie, CookieLevel.Essential);
         }
     }
 }

    Registering authentication cookies

    We strongly recommend registering all authentication cookies used on your website with an appropriate cookie level (typically Essential when working with the default cookie level values).

    Otherwise you may encounter problems with the cookies being cleared after adjusting the allowed cookie level for visitors (for example when managing tracking consent). Changes of the allowed cookie level automatically remove all cookies above the given level. Any unregistered cookies are processed with the Visitor level, which is usually too high for basic authentication cookies.

    To register a cookie, call the CookieHelper.RegisterCookie method (available in the CMS.Helpers namespace of the Kentico API) in your application’s startup code. You can access the default level values in the CookieLevel enumeration.

The Kentico identity implementation is now registered and you can work with the Kentico.Membership API in your application’s code. Continue by setting up user authentication. You can also implement the following features: