Custom Identity using MVC5 and OWIN

Question

I trying to add custom properties to the ApplicationUser for a web site using MVC5 and OWIN authentication. I\'ve read https://stackoverflow.com/a/10524305/264607 and I like ho

Answer 1

You're getting an exception because HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated returns false at the point of check (so does HttpContext.Current.Request.IsAuthenticated).

If you remove the if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) statement it will work fine (at least this part of code).

I've tried a simple thing like this:

BaseController.cs

public abstract class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected virtual new CustomPrincipal User
    {
        get { return HttpContext.User as CustomPrincipal; }
    }
}

CustomPrincipal.cs

public class CustomPrincipal : IPrincipal
{
    public IIdentity Identity { get; private set; }
    public bool IsInRole(string role) { return false; }

    public CustomPrincipal(string username)
    {
        this.Identity = new GenericIdentity(username);
    }

    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
    public string InvitationCode { get; set; }
    public int PatientNumber { get; set; }
}

Global.asax.cs

protected void Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     CustomPrincipal customUser = new CustomPrincipal(User.Identity.Name);

     customUser.BirthDate = DateTime.Now;
     customUser.InvitationCode = "1234567890A";
     customUser.PatientNumber = 100;

     HttpContext.Current.User = customUser;
}

HomeController.cs

public ActionResult Index()
{
    ViewBag.BirthDate = User.BirthDate;
    ViewBag.InvitationCode = User.InvitationCode;
    ViewBag.PatientNumber = User.PatientNumber;

    return View();
}

And this is working fine. So unless this code:

userManager = new UserManager(new UserStore(new ApplicationDbContext()));

ApplicationUser user = userManager.FindByName(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name);

is not returning a valid (custom) user object, the problem is with the if() statement.

Your update looks fine, and if you're happy to store data as claims in a cookie you can go with it, although I personally hate the try {} catch block there.

What I do instead is this:

BaseController.cs

[AuthorizeEx]
public abstract partial class BaseController : Controller
{
    public IOwinContext OwinContext
    {
        get { return HttpContext.GetOwinContext(); }
    }

    public new ClaimsPrincipal User
    {
        get { return base.User as ClaimsPrincipal; }
    }

    public WorkContext WorkContext { get; set; }
}

I decorate the base controller class with a custom attribute.

AuthorizeExAttribute.cs:

public class AuthorizeExAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
{
    public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
    {
        Ensure.Argument.NotNull(filterContext);

        base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);

        IPrincipal user = filterContext.HttpContext.User;
        if (user.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
        {
            var ctrl = filterContext.Controller as BaseController;
            ctrl.WorkContext = new WorkContext(user.Identity.Name);
        }
    }
}

And WorkContext.cs:

public class WorkContext
{
    private string _email;

    private Lazy currentUser;

    private IAuthenticationService authService;
    private ICacheManager cacheManager;

    public User CurrentUser
    {
        get 
        { 
            var cachedUser = cacheManager.Get(Constants.CacheUserKeyPrefix + this._email);
            if (cachedUser != null)
            {
                return cachedUser;
            }
            else
            {
                var user = currentUser.Value;

                cacheManager.Set(Constants.CacheUserKeyPrefix + this._email, user, 30);

                return user;
            }
        }
    }

    public WorkContext(string email)
    {
        Ensure.Argument.NotNullOrEmpty(email);

        this._email = email;

        this.authService = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService();
        this.cacheManager = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService();

        this.currentUser = new Lazy(() => authService.GetUserByEmail(email));
    }

I then access the WorkContext like this:

public class DashboardController : BaseController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.User = WorkContext.CurrentUser;

        return View();
    }
}

I'm using Ninject's Dependency Resolver to resolve authService and cacheManager but you can skip caching and replace authService with ASP.NET Identity UserManager I believe.

I also wanted to give credit where it's due as the WorkContext class is heavily inspired by NugetGallery project.