Why InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute in MVC 4 app

Question

I think my understanding on SimpleMembershipProvider is almost 60% and the rest is getting to know how it internally work.

You can quickly found some issue when using [InitializeSimpleMembership] filter only in AccountController (the default template). I think anywhere you use Memberhsip API or WebMatrix.WebSecurity, you need to make sure this filter should be called first.

Later, If you use User.IsInRole in my _Layout.cshtml. You need to apply the filter to all controllers, then you start registering it in globally.

However I just realize there is LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized which make the initialization performed only once per app start.

So why the SimpleMembershipInitializer (in the filter) is not directly in Application_Start? Is there any reason to use the filter?

Answer 1

I believe the template used an attribute for database initialization so that the non-authenticated portions of the site would still work if the initialization failed.

For most practical purposes, it's best to just have this done in the App_Start.

Answer 2

If you were to merge the InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute into the Global.asax.cs Application_Start so that the SimpleMembershipProvider would be initialized without any AccountController routes being called...

...it could look something like this: http://aaron-hoffman.blogspot.com/2013/02/aspnet-mvc-4-membership-users-passwords.html

// The using below is needed for "UsersContext" - it will be relative to your project namespace using MvcApplication1.Models;  using System; using System.Data.Entity; using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure; using System.Threading; using System.Web.Http; using System.Web.Mvc; using System.Web.Optimization; using System.Web.Routing; using WebMatrix.WebData;  namespace MvcApplication1 {     // Note: For instructions on enabling IIS6 or IIS7 classic mode,      // visit http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=9394801      public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication     {         protected void Application_Start()         {             AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();              WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);             FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);             RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);             BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);             AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();              // Ensure ASP.NET Simple Membership is initialized only once per app start             LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(ref _initializer, ref _isInitialized, ref _initializerLock);         }          private static SimpleMembershipInitializer _initializer;         private static object _initializerLock = new object();         private static bool _isInitialized;          private class SimpleMembershipInitializer         {             public SimpleMembershipInitializer()             {                 Database.SetInitializer<UsersContext>(null);                  try                 {                     using (var context = new UsersContext())                     {                         if (!context.Database.Exists())                         {                             // Create the SimpleMembership database without Entity Framework migration schema                             ((IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext.CreateDatabase();                         }                     }                      WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection", "UserProfile", "UserId", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);                 }                 catch (Exception ex)                 {                     throw new InvalidOperationException("The ASP.NET Simple Membership database could not be initialized. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256588", ex);                 }             }         }     } }