Professional ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 Edition: In C# and VB

Chapter 13. Extending the Provider Model

The last chapter introduced the provider model found in ASP.NET 3.5 and explained how it is used with the membership and role management systems.

As discussed in the previous chapter, these systems in ASP.NET 3.5 require that some type of user state be maintained for long periods of time. Their time-interval and security requirements for state storage are greater than those for earlier systems that simply used the Session object. Out of the box, ASP.NET 3.5 gives you a series of providers to use as the underlying connectors for any data storage needs that arise from state management for these systems.

The providers that come with the default install of the .NET Framework 3.5 include the most common means of state management data storage needed to work with any of the systems. But like most things in .NET, you can customize and extend the providers that are supplied.

This chapter looks at some of the ways to extend the provider model found in ASP.NET 3.5. This chapter also reviews a couple of sample extensions to the provider model. First, however, you look at some of the simpler ways to modify and extend the providers already present in the default install of .NET 3.5.

Providers Are One Tier in a Larger Architecture

Remember from the previous chapter that providers allow you to define the data-access tier for many of the systems in ASP.NET 3.5. They also enable you to define your core business logic implementation on how the data is manipulated ...