Enable .NET 3.5 goodies in IIS vdir

DotNetInterop — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Some of you may be oddballs like me: you like .NET, you program in .NET, but you don't always use Visual Studio. You hand-code everything for some applications. You often open up a text editor and just start writing a source module, with no wizards, no project templates, etc. You hand-code your MSbuild files. You hand-code your web.config files.

Oddballs like us cannot rely on the code-generation that comes with Visual Studio. So when we write a new ASP.NET application, and we want to use the .NET 3.5 goodies in that app - things like var types, and LINQ - we need to explicitly specify that we want .NET 3.5 compilation. Same is true if you are writing a WCF service and want to use REST or any of the var types or LINQ.

I've done this twice now and had to search for the way to do it both times. I'm putting here as a "note to self" and also as a reference for anyone else. These are the custom magic incantations for web.config, if you want to enable .NET 3.5 in your ASP.NET app, or in your WCF Service - eg, the cool REST stuff from .NET 3.5.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>

  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="false">  
      <assemblies>  
        <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>  
        <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>  
        <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>  
        <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>  
      </assemblies>  
    </compilation>  
  </system.web>


  <system.codedom>  
    <compilers>  
      <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs"   
                type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider,System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"   
                warningLevel="4">  
        <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>  
        <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/>  
      </compiler>  
      <compiler language="vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript" extension=".vb"   
                type="Microsoft.VisualBasic.VBCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"   
                warningLevel="4">  
        <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>  
        <providerOption name="OptionInfer" value="true"/>  
        <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/>  
      </compiler>  
    </compilers>  
  </system.codedom> 

</configuration>

ASP.NET Membership Providers

DotNetInterop — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:57:00 GMT

ASP.NET 2.0 includes membership services, which is a built-in mechanism for validating and storing user credentials, as well as storing and managing user profile information. ASP.NET Membership uses a service provider model to allow "any backing store" to act as the membership data store. Built-in to ASP.NET 2.0, Microsoft ships a SQL Server provider, as well as an ActiveDirectory (or ADAM) provider. What this means is, out of the box, you can manage members and logins of an ASP.NET web site using those backing stores.

What if you have something different? The service provider model enables other third-party implementations. Microsoft hoped this would encourage people to just go build what they want, and in fact, that has happened.

Here are some resources on third party ASP.NET membership providers:

XML provider - article and source on MSDN. Very lightweight, read-only.

Writing a custom provider - article on devx, employs MS Access

Writing a custom provider - KB Article from microsoft.

MySQL Provider - article and source code on codeproject.com
PetShop4 - including source for a partial Oracle 10g membership provider
PostgreSQL provider - from CoreLab (trial version available )
db4o provider - sourceforge project
SQLite Provider - article and source code on eggheadcafe

With all those resources, it's clear the extensibility model works. Well, you need a custom provider, go get it. You want to write your own? Get to it.

You can also look for more providers.

All About Interop : ASP.NET

Enable .NET 3.5 goodies in IIS vdir

ASP.NET Membership Providers