Added: December/21/2006 at 10:50am | IP Logged

Hi,

Could I have a normal login form posting to the aspplogin.aspx login page, like the classic ASP version does?

Added: December/21/2006 at 11:02am | IP Logged

Hi,

I had an idea maybe that in the DLL instead of the login page returning an error when no ReturnURL is specified it redirects and hands the login page the ReturnURL specified by the admin, maybe /membersarea/ or something, would that be a possible idea?

Added: December/21/2006 at 11:15am | IP Logged

Hi,

Lets say someone has a directory called 'aspprotectnet' where they have all their protected pages. They want a login form on their NON-PROTECTED homepage, now, in the web.config file, they specify a DEFAULT ReturnURL. So, the homepage inherits the login page code from the DLL, you add the form to your homepage and all the necessary fields. Currently, when no ReturnURL is specified, the page gets an error returned, BUT this time the DLL could tell the page to redirect to include it's default ReturnURL from the web.config file, instead of returning the error. Now the homepage (non-protected) has all the login stuff on it, now has the default ReturnURL since the ReturnURL wasn't specified when the page was origionally loaded by the user, and if one was origionally specified, the default value wouldn't be used.

....and I know that would work....

...and I wish I could do that... but no DLL source code...

Added: December/21/2006 at 11:27am | IP Logged

What I mean by inherit is this:

<%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" Codebehind="aspplogin.aspx.vb" Inherits="aspprotectauthentication.aspplogin" %>

Added: December/21/2006 at 11:28am | IP Logged

...and yea I now about all the view state stuff, but I don't see how my idea wouldn't be possible?!?!?!

Added: December/21/2006 at 11:33am | IP Logged

it isn't possible.. it's 100% not possible.. not using the current authentication dll and default forms authentication behavior in .NET.

Sure, you can have a login form on a non-protected page in .NET (plenty of sites do it) but not using what I gave you. I may have a custom solution someday for the situation but it will most likely work totally seperately of the current stuff.

It's just the nature of the behavior of the built in forms authentication in .NET, and the object oriented self submitting forms that use viewstate.

The biggest problem is ASP.NET generates viewstate info when a page with a form is loaded. When it submits back to itself that viewstate info must be there and be correct.  There is no way to have one page submit to another and have all that viewstate stuff work. It is just doesn't work that way.

----------------------------------------------
The only way this could possibly work would be to scrap all the built in forms based authentication behaviors and make a manually coded page to post to with a ton of code in it...  that checked the info submitted and did all the stuff the authentication dll normally would... a lot easier said than done I am afraid.

Added: December/21/2006 at 12:02pm | IP Logged

BTW: To give you an update.. I have been working a lot on the ASP.NET version of the registration/admin pages.. it's just that ASP.NET has been kicking me in the ass lately and I havent been making much progress with any of it. I have started from scratch 3 times now as I didnt like the way things were going.. not giving up but it wont be ready soon.. I am almost thinking about just doing it inline (the asp classic way) and getting it over with and working. I been spending so much time trying to keep it code behind and using all the controls in ASP.NET that I am beginning to wonder if it is worth the end results.. ultimately it will work just a well being inline code. It's just that I wanted to do it the perfy code behind way using all the controls and objects.. etc etc etc.. I find that custimizing a lot of that stuff is the big issue.. its easy to drag and drop data connections and forms controls around, but not so easy to really customize it all and get what you need out of it.

A have also been spending a lot of time trying to get cookie sharing stuff working between Classic ASP and ASP.NET so logins could be shared.. eliminating the need to login into both types of pages during a session. I made a lot of progress but in the end just end up with difficulties making it all work consistantly. It likes to work once or twice and then break.. weird issues setting and removing cookies between Classic ASP and ASP.NET. If I could just get all of that working things like this Login form on a non protected page like you want would be a piece of cake as you could do it via Classic ASP.. then redirect right after to the .NET page you want the person on. Same goes for the user area.. as that would be more useful as well if after leaving it the person were auto logged into .NET pages.

Oh well.. lots to do.. it's not like I am not working on it.. just its a bitch. .NET is a bitch.

---------------
And Merry Christmas as well..