DefaultConnection and membership - what is the connection between localsqlserver and defaultconnection

Question

Hmmmm... I really can't get my head around this.

In web.config I have:

<connectionStrings>
   <clear /> <!--- need this to prevent using LocalSqlServer from machine.config or somewhere becouse it is not present when when publish to hosting -->
   <add name="DefaultConnection" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=aspnet-Goaly-20120615111028;Integrated Security=SSPI" />  
</connectionStrings>

and

<membership defaultProvider="DefaultMembershipProvider">
  <providers>
    <!-- I think this line is telling asp.net that I want the membership working agains defaultconnection, and not LocalSqlServer connection????? -->
    <add name="DefaultMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Providers.DefaultMembershipProvider, System.Web.Providers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" connectionStringName="DefaultConnection" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" />
  </providers>
</membership>

But then it is complaining:

The connection name 'LocalSqlServer' was not found in the applications configuration or the connection string is empty.

When I use the publish from VS2012 RC in the settings tab I get a ModelContext and a DefaultConnection, so how is this supposed to work?

What I want is simply to get the membership tables in the same database as the tables created by modelcontext.

This should be so oob, but I must have overcomplicated it some how.

Thanks for any help.

Regards

Larsi

Answer 1

The default settings for all web sites on a windows machines inherit the settings of 2 configuration files: machine.config and web.config, which can be found in the directory Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework(or Framework64 for 64 bit)/version/config.

Here is a snippet from the default version of machine.config:

<system.web>
    <processModel autoConfig="true"/>
    <httpHandlers/>
    <membership>
        <providers>
            <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="LocalSqlServer" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Hashed" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="7" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1" passwordAttemptWindow="10" passwordStrengthRegularExpression=""/>
        </providers>
    </membership>
    <profile>
        <providers>
            <add name="AspNetSqlProfileProvider" connectionStringName="LocalSqlServer" applicationName="/" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/>
        </providers>
    </profile>
    <roleManager>
        <providers>
            <add name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" connectionStringName="LocalSqlServer" applicationName="/" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/>
            <add name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" applicationName="/" type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/>
        </providers>
    </roleManager>
</system.web>

So the answer to your question is: it is machine.config that establishes the dependency to the LocalSqlServer connection. When you add the <clear/> tag as the other answers to this question suggest, you are removing the reference to the membership provider named AspNetSqlMembershipProvier, and with it the reference to LocalSqlServer.

Answer 2

It is mentioned in the follwing post forumsasp that adding </clear> tag before your connection string in the membership element and rolemangaer element ( if present in your web.config) will solves the issue.

<membership defaultProvider="DefaultMembershipProvider">
  <providers>
   <clear/> <!-- solves the issue -->    
   <add name="DefaultMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Providers.DefaultMembershipProvider, System.Web.Providers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" connectionStringName="DefaultConnection" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" />
  </providers>
</membership>

also you can use SqlMetal.exe to add membership tables to your existing database.