Programming Visual Basic 2005

Chapter 12. Personalization

One of the hallmarks of a professional web site is the ability for users to personalize the site to their individual needs. Personalization means that the site remembers the user and the user's preferences, profile information, and so forth.

In addition to allowing users to personalize your site, you may want to limit their access based on their identity. To accomplish this, you may want your users to "log in." While you can use Windows security on an intranet, the harder task has always been to create a complete authentication and authorization system for Internet applications where you can't know in advance who will be logging in. This is called forms-based security , and Visual Basic 2005 makes it a snap, with a ready-to-go set of controls and a complete database for managing both your users login information and their preferences.

Implementing Forms-Based Security

To begin, create a new web application named FormsBasedSecurity. Click on WebSite → ASP.NET Configuration to open the Web Site Administration Tool (WAT ). Click on the Security tab, as shown in Figure 12-1.

Under Users, click on the link "Select authentication" and choose "From the Internet" as opposed to "From a local network." Then click the Done button. When you return to the Security tab, you'll find that the Users section has changed considerably, as shown in Figure 12-2.

Click on Create User and create one user for your site, as shown in Figure 12-3.

Figure 12-1. Web Site Administration ...