Profiles

ASP.NET 2.0 represents a substantial improvement in the area of personalized Web sites. In addition to the membership features weve already covered, ASP.NET profiles, themes, and Web parts significantly enhance personalization in Web sites.

ASP.NET Profiles

ASP.NET profiles are similar to sessions. The difference is that a profile is persistent whereas a session is lost when the browser is closed. Another big difference between sessions and profiles is that profiles are strongly typed, therefore providing you with IntelliSense during the development process.

A profile is defined in either the machines configuration file or the web.config file for the application. (You cannot define a profile in a sub-folders web.config file.) The code below defines a profile to store the Web site visitors first and last name.

<profile>
<properties>
<add name="FirstName" />

<add name="LastName" />
</properties>
</profile>

The default data type for a profile property is System.String. In the above example, no data type was specified. Therefore the FirstName and LastName properties are both of type String. As previously mentioned, profile properties are strongly typed. The code below adds a new property for age that is of type Int32.

<profile>
<properties>

<add name="FirstName" />
<add name="LastName" />
<add name="Age" type="Int32"/>
</properties>

</profile>

Profiles are generally used with ASP.NET Forms authentication. When used in combination with Forms authentication, each user has a separate profile associated with their user ID. However, it is also possible to allow the use of profiles in an anonymous application using the element in the configuration file along with the allowAnonymous attribute as shown below:

<anonymousIdentification enabled="true" />

<profile>
<properties>
<add name="FirstName" allowAnonymous="true" />
<add name="LastName" allowAnonymous="true" />
</properties>
</profile>

When an anonymous user browses the site, ASP.NET creates an instance of ProfileCommon for the user. This profile uses a unique ID stored in a cookie on the browser to identify the user as a unique visitor. In this way, you can store profile information for users who are browsing anonymously.

Profile Groups

It is possible to group properties of profiles. By grouping properties, it is possible to simulate multiple profiles for a specific application.

The following configuration configures a FirstName and LastName property for two groups; Buyers and Prospects.

<profile>

<properties>
<group name="Buyers">
   <add name="FirstName" />
   <add name="Lastname" />
   <add name="NumberOfPurchases" type="Int32" />

</group>
<group name="Prospects">
   <add name="FirstName" />
   <add name="Lastname" />
</group>
</properties>

</profile>

It is then possible to set properties on a particular group as follows:

Profile.Buyers.NumberOfPurchases += 1;

Storing Complex Objects

So far, the examples we've covered have stored simple data types in a profile. It is also possible to store complex data types in a profile by specifying the method of serialization using the serializeAs attribute as follows:

<add name="PurchaseInvoice"
type="PurchaseInvoice"
serializeAs="Binary"
/>

In this case, the type is PurchaseInvoice. The PurchaseInvoice class needs to be marked as serializable and can contain any number of properties. For example, if PurchaseInvoice has a property called NumItemsPurchased, you can refer to that property in code as follows:

Profile.PurchaseInvoice.NumItemsPurchased

Profile Inheritance

It is possible to create a profile for use in multiple applications. By creating a profile class that derives from ProfileBase, you can reuse a profile in several applications by using the inherits attribute as shown below:

<profile inherits="PurchasingProfile" />

In this case, the class PurchasingProfile would look
like so:

using System;
using System.Web.Profile;
public class PurchasingProfile : ProfileBase {
private string _ProductName;
private Int32 _ProductID;
public string ProductName {
get { return _ProductName; }
set { _ProductName = value; }
}
public Int32 ProductID {
get { return _ProductID; }
set { _ProductID = value; }
}
}

Profile Providers

ASP.NET profiles use the provider model. The default provider stores the information in a SQL Server Express database in the App_Data folder of the Web application using the SqlProfileProvider provider. If the database doesn't exist, ASP.NET will automatically create it when the profile attempts to store information.

In some cases, however, you may want to develop your own profile provider. The ASP.NET profile feature enables you to easily use different providers.

You create a custom profile provider when:

• You need to store profile information in a data source, such as in a FoxPro database or in an Oracle database, that is not supported by the profile providers included with the .NET Framework.
• You need to manage profile information using a database schema that is different from the database schema used by the providers included with the .NET Framework. A common example is that you want to integrate profile information with user data in an existing SQL Server database.

Required Classes

To implement a profile provider, you create a class that inherits the System.Web.Profile.ProfileProvider abstract class. The ProfileProvider abstract class in turn inherits the System.Configuration.SettingsProvider abstract class, which inherits the System.Configuration.Provider.ProviderBase abstract class. Because of this inheritance chain, in addition to the required members of the ProfileProvider class, you must implement the required members of the SettingsProvider and ProviderBase classes.

The following tables describe the properties and methods that you must implement from the ProviderBase, SettingsProvider, and ProfileProvider abstract classes.

ProviderBase Members

Member	Description
Initialize method	Takes as input the name of the provider instance and a NameValueCollection of configuration settings. Used to set options and property values for the provider instance, including implementation-specific values and options specified in the machine configuration or Web.config file.

SettingsProvider Members

Member	Description
ApplicationName property	The application name that is stored with each profile. The profile provider uses the application name to store profile information separately for each application. This enables multiple ASP.NET applications to use the same data source without a conflict if the same user name is created in different applications. Alternatively, multiple ASP.NET applications can share a profile data source by specifying the same application name.
GetPropertyValues method	Takes as input a SettingsContext and a SettingsPropertyCollection object. The SettingsContext provides information about the user. You can use the information as a primary key to retrieve profile property information for the user. Use the SettingsContext object to get the user name and whether the user is authenticated or anonymous. The SettingsPropertyCollection contains a collection of SettingsProperty objects. Each SettingsProperty object provides the name and type of the property as well as additional information such as the default value for the property and whether the property is read-only. The GetPropertyValues method populates a SettingsPropertyValueCollection with SettingsPropertyValue objects based on the SettingsProperty objects provided as input. The values from the data source for the specified user are assigned to the PropertyValue properties for each SettingsPropertyValue object and the entire collection is returned. Calling the method also updates the LastActivityDate value for the specified user profile to the current date and time.
SetPropertyValues method	Takes as input a SettingsContext and a SettingsPropertyValueCollection object. The SettingsContext provides information about the user. You can use the information as a primary key to retrieve profile property information for the user. Use the SettingsContext object to get the user name and whether the user is authenticated or anonymous. The SettingsPropertyValueCollection contains a collection of SettingsPropertyValue objects. Each SettingsPropertyValue object provides the name, type, and value of the property as well as additional information such as the default value for the property and whether the property is read-only. The SetPropertyValues method updates the profile property values in the data source for the specified user. Calling the method also updates the LastActivityDate and LastUpdatedDate values for the specified user profile to the current date and time.

ProfileProvider Members

Member	Description
DeleteProfiles method	Takes as input a string array of user names and deletes from the data source all profile information and property values for the specified names where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. If your data source supports transactions, it is recommended that you include all delete operations in a transaction and that you roll back the transaction and throw an exception if any delete operation fails.
DeleteProfiles method	Takes as input a collection of ProfileInfo objects and deletes from the data source all profile information and property values for each profile where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. If your data source supports transactions, it is recommended that you include all delete operations in a transaction and roll back the transaction and throw an exception if any delete operation fails.
DeleteInactiveProfiles method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value and a DateTime object and deletes from the data source all profile information and property values where the last activity date is less than or equal to the specified date and time and where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be deleted. If your data source supports transactions, it is recommended that you include all delete operations in a transaction and roll back the transaction and throw an exception if any delete operation fails.
GetAllProfiles method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value, an integer that specifies the page index, an integer that specifies the page size, and a reference to an integer that will be set to the total count of profiles. Returns a ProfileInfoCollection that contains ProfileInfo objects for all profiles in the data source where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be returned. The results returned by the GetAllProfiles method are constrained by the page index and page size values. The page size value specifies the maximum number of ProfileInfo objects to return in the ProfileInfoCollection. The page index value specifies which page of results to return, where 1 identifies the first page. The parameter for total records is an out parameter (you can use ByRef in Visual Basic) that is set to the total number of profiles. For example, if the data store contains 13 profiles for the application and the page index value is 2 with a page size of 5, the ProfileInfoCollection returned contains the sixth through the tenth profiles. The total records value is set to 13 when the method returns.
GetAllInactiveProfiles method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value, a DateTime object, an integer that specifies the page index, an integer that specifies the page size, and a reference to an integer that will be set to the total count of profiles. Returns a ProfileInfoCollection that contains ProfileInfo objects for all profiles in the data source where the last activity date is less than or equal to the specified DateTime and where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be returned. The results returned by the GetAllInactiveProfiles method are constrained by the page index and page size values. The page size value specifies the maximum number of ProfileInfo objects to return in the ProfileInfoCollection. The page index value specifies which page of results to return, where 1 identifies the first page. The parameter for total records is an out parameter (you can use ByRef in Visual Basic) that is set to the total number of profiles. For example, if the data store contains 13 profiles for the application and the page index value is 2 with a page size of 5, the ProfileInfoCollection returned contains the sixth through the tenth profiles. The total records value is set to 13 when the method returns.
FindProfilesByUserName method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value, a string containing a user name, an integer that specifies the page index, an integer that specifies the page size, and a reference to an integer that will be set to the total count of profiles. Returns a ProfileInfoCollection that contains ProfileInfo objects for all profiles in the data source where the user name matches the specified user name and where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be returned. If your data source supports additional search capabilities, such as wildcard characters, you can provide more extensive search capabilities for user names. The results returned by the FindProfilesByUserName method are constrained by the page index and page size values. The page size value specifies the maximum number of ProfileInfo objects to return in the ProfileInfoCollection. The page index value specifies which page of results to return, where 1 identifies the first page. The parameter for total records is an out parameter (you can use ByRef in Visual Basic) that is set to the total number of profiles. For example, if the data store contains 13 profiles for the application and the page index value is 2 with a page size of 5, the ProfileInfoCollection returned contains the sixth through the tenth profiles. The total records value is set to 13 when the method returns.
FindInactiveProfilesByUserName method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value, a string containing a user name, a DateTime object, an integer that specifies the page index, an integer that specifies the page size, and a reference to an integer that will be set to the total count of profiles. Returns a ProfileInfoCollection that contains ProfileInfo objects for all profiles in the data source where the user name matches the specified user name, where the last activity date is less than or equal to the specified DateTime, and where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be returned. If your data source supports additional search capabilities, such as wildcard characters, you can provide more extensive search capabilities for user names. The results returned by the FindInactiveProfilesByUserName method are constrained by the page index and page size values. The page size value specifies the maximum number of ProfileInfo objects to return in the ProfileInfoCollection. The page index value specifies which page of results to return, where 1 identifies the first page. The parameter for total records is an out parameter (you can use ByRef in Visual Basic) that is set to the total number of profiles. For example, if the data store contains 13 profiles for the application and the page index value is 2 with a page size of 5, the ProfileInfoCollection returned contains the sixth through the tenth profiles. The total records value is set to 13 when the method returns.
GetNumberOfInActiveProfiles method	Takes as input a ProfileAuthenticationOption value and a DateTime object and returns a count of all profiles in the data source where the last activity date is less than or equal to the specified DateTime and where the application name matches the ApplicationName property value. The ProfileAuthenticationOption parameter specifies whether only anonymous profiles, only authenticated profiles, or all profiles are to be counted.

ApplicationName

Because profile providers store profile information

separately for each application, you must ensure that your data schema includes
the application name and that queries and updates also include the application
name. For example, the following command is used to retrieve a property value
from a database based on the user name and whether the profile is anonymous,
and ensures that the ApplicationName value
is included in the query.

SELECT Property
FROM PropertyTable
WHERE Username = 'user1'
AND IsAnonymous = False
AND ApplicationName = 'MyApplication'