ASP.NET Identity

5 min

ASP.NET Identity is a flexible authentication module for managing users and roles in CMS 13. Control who accesses the CMS editing and admin UIs, and integrate with custom user stores or third-party identity providers.

Note EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity is supported in CMS 13 and can run alongside Opti ID. Opti ID authenticates editors and administrators in the CMS shell; ASP.NET Identity can continue to authenticate site visitors in the same application. Enabling Opti ID does not require you to remove this package or migrate existing accounts.

Add the EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity NuGet package and call AddCmsAspNetIdentity in the Startup class:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
  ...
  services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<ApplicationUser>();
  ...
}

The EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity NuGet package implements the following services needed by the Optimizely UI: UIUserManager, UIRoleProvider, SecurityEntityProvider, IQueryableNotificationUsers, and SignInManager. Manage users, roles, and access rights from the admin view. EPiServer.Cms.Shell.UI includes login and logout views by default.

Custom user model

Define a custom user model to extend the default identity with additional properties. Two approaches are available:

Inherit from EPiServer.Cms.UI.AspNetIdentity.ApplicationUser:

public class CustomUser : ApplicationUser
{
// Your custom properties
}

Inherit from Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.IdentityUser and the EPiServer.Shell.Security.IUIUser interface:

public class CustomUser: IdentityUser, IUIUser {
  public string Comment {
    get;
    set;
  }
  public bool IsApproved {
    get;
    set;
  }
  public bool IsLockedOut {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime CreationDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime ? LastLockoutDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  [Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
  public DateTime ? LastLoginDate {
    get;
    set;
  }

  public string PasswordQuestion {
    get;
  }

  public string ProviderName {
    get {
      return "MyProviderName";
    }
  }

  [NotMapped]
  public string Username {
    get {
      return base.UserName;
    }
    set {
      base.UserName = value;
    }
  }
}

After defining a custom user model, configure it in the Startup class:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
  ...
  services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<CustomUser>();
  ...
}

Migration

Entity Framework (EF) Core migrations version-control the identity database schema as a custom user model evolves.

By default, EPiServer.CMS.UI.AspNetIdentity provides a built-in ApplicationDbContext class to work with identity entities like users and roles. Configure the migration assembly when calling AddCmsAspNetIdentity():

services.AddCmsAspNetIdentity<ApplicationUser>(configureSqlServerOptions: o => o.MigrationsAssembly("Your.Assembly"));

Create a migration for ApplicationDbContext with EF Core Tools:

dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate

See the EF Core Migration guide.

For the AddOptimizelyIdentity and AddCmsAspNetIdentity side by side pattern, see Configure Opti ID for CMS 13.

For information on the SecurityEntityProvider interceptor, see Mixed-mode authentication.