Can I access IIdentity from Web API

Question

I\'m adding some Web API services to an existing MVC application. I have a model binder for my MVC controllers to get the user object stored in a CustomIdentity. I\'m tryi

Answer 1

You can try to use this extension method from System.ServiceModel.dll:

public static IPrincipal GetUserPrincipal(this HttpRequestMessage request);

as:

IPrincipal principal = request.GetUserPrincipal();
IIdentity identity = principal.Identity;

Answer 2

I had the same problem and I found this way. In your ApiController you can use
base.ControllerContext.RequestContext.Principal.Identity.;

Answer 3

They removed GetUserPrincipal in ASP.NET MVC 4 RC. However it seems the ApiController property User has replaced this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.http.apicontroller.user

Answer 4

Yes you can. ApiController has a Request property of type System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage; this holds details about the current request naturally (it also has a setter for unit testing purposes). HttpRequestMessage has a Properties dictionary; you will find the value of the key MS_UserPrincipal holds your IPrincipal object.

In researching this answer, I came across the System.Web.Http.HttpRequestMessageExtensions which has a GetUserPrincipal(this HttpRequestMessage request) extension method which accesses this dictionary value; I hadn't seen this extension method before and was accessing Request.Properties["MS_UserPrincipal"] directly, but this might be a better method (less dependent on the ASP.NET Web Api team keeping the name of the key the same...)