Seth Barrett

May 16th, 2023

In this post, we will explore how to add authentication and authorization to your web application using ASP.NET Core Identity.

Step 1: Understanding ASP.NET Core Identity

ASP.NET Core Identity is a membership system that allows you to add authentication and authorization to your web applications. It provides a set of libraries and tools for managing user authentication, roles, and permissions.

Some of the key features of ASP.NET Core Identity include:

• User Registration and Management: You can register new users and manage user accounts, including password resets and account lockouts.
• Authentication: You can authenticate users using a variety of methods, such as cookies, tokens, or external providers like Google or Facebook.
• Authorization: You can define roles and permissions for your application and control access to specific areas or features.
• Two-Factor Authentication: You can enable two-factor authentication for added security.
• Social Login: You can allow users to sign in with their social media accounts.

Step 2: Adding Authentication and Authorization to Your Web Application

To add authentication and authorization to your web application using ASP.NET Core Identity, follow these steps:

• Install the ASP.NET Core Identity package. In Visual Studio, right-click on your project and select "Manage NuGet Packages". Search for "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity" and install the package.
• Update your DbContext. Open your DbContext file and add the following code:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

public class ApplicationDbContext : IdentityDbContext
{
    public ApplicationDbContext(DbContextOptions<ApplicationDbContext> options)
        : base(options)
    {
    }
}

• Configure ASP.NET Core Identity. In the "Startup.cs" file, add the following code to the "ConfigureServices" method:

services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
    options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));

services.AddIdentity<IdentityUser, IdentityRole>()
    .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
    .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

services.Configure<IdentityOptions>(options =>
{
    // Password settings
    options.Password.RequireDigit = true;
    options.Password.RequireLowercase = true;
    options.Password.RequireNonAlphanumeric = true;
    options.Password.RequireUppercase = true;
    options.Password.RequiredLength = 8;
    options.Password.RequiredUniqueChars = 1;

    // Lockout settings
    options.Lockout.DefaultLockoutTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30);
    options.Lockout.MaxFailedAccessAttempts = 5;
    options.Lockout.AllowedForNewUsers = true;

    // User settings
    options.User.AllowedUserNameCharacters =
        "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789-._@+";
    options.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true;

    // SignIn settings
    options.SignIn.RequireConfirmedEmail = false;
    options.SignIn.RequireConfirmedPhoneNumber = false;
});

• Add authentication middleware. In the "Startup.cs" file, add the following code to the "Configure" method:

app.UseAuthentication();

• Add authorization middleware. In the "Startup.cs" file, add the following code to the "Configure" method:

app.UseAuthorization();

• Create a user. You can create a user using the UserManager class. For example, to create a new user, you can add the following code to your controller:

var user = new IdentityUser { UserName = "testuser", Email = "testuser@example.com" };
    var result = await _userManager.CreateAsync(user, "P@ssw0rd");

• Protect a route. To protect a route, you can add the [Authorize] attribute to your controller or action method. For example:

[Authorize]
public IActionResult Secret()
{
    return View();
}

Congratulations! You have successfully added authentication and authorization to your web application using ASP.NET Core Identity and C#.

In this series, we covered the basics of C# programming, how to set up a coding environment on Windows, how to create a simple web application using ASP, how to deploy your web application to a hosting provider, and how to add authentication and authorization using ASP.NET Core Identity.

ASP.NET Core is a powerful framework for building web applications using C#. It provides a wide range of tools and libraries for web development, making it easy to build scalable, maintainable, and secure applications.

We hope this series has helped you get started with C# web programming using ASP.NET Core. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. Happy coding!

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