Chris Kirby's Inner Monolog : Hacks

My dell widescreens go vertical

Chris Kirby — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:35:02 GMT

I may be marginally insane, but once i saw this stand, I had to have it.

Sometimes these 20" widescreens can take up a little too much horizontal real estate...So, what better solution then to stack em' high ;) Now I guess its time to add that 24" widescreen in portrait mode to the right!

Asp.net 2.0 membership and migrating legacy users

Chris Kirby — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:07:00 GMT

I've encountered many instances lately in which i'm developing a new version of a site with an existing (custom) authentication database. Now, in cases like these, most .net developers would suggest writing your own membership and role providers to tie directly in to the existing schema; however, instead of rolling my own, I've decided to take a different approach in which I simply utilize the events provided with the login control to manually authenticate and migration the legacy accounts in real time. This approach requires considerably less code and allows you to utilize the default providers while still supporting the legacy user database. The event code would look something like this: (*note* that the db code makes use of classes and methods from a custom library)

protected void Login1_Authenticate(object sender, System.Web.UI.WebControls.AuthenticateEventArgs e)
{ // first, check to see if the user has already been migrated. if so, then were done here.
if(Membership.ValidateUser(Login1.UserName, Login1.Password))
{
e.Authenticated = true;
return;
}
else
{
// check legacy credentials
DataParameters parameters = new DataParameters();
parameters.Add("@Login", SqlDbType.VarChar, Login1.UserName);
parameters.Add("@Password", SqlDbType.VarChar, Login1.Password);
parameters.Add("@Email", SqlDbType.VarChar, 50, ParameterDirection.Output);
parameters.Add("@UserId", SqlDbType.Int, 1, ParameterDirection.Output);
parameters.Add("ReturnValue", SqlDbType.Int, 1, ParameterDirection.ReturnValue);
DataUtility.ExecuteNonQuery("ConnectionString", CommandType.StoredProcedure, "ValidateUser", parameters);
// if the credentials are good, then migrate to membership
if((int)parameters["ReturnValue"].Value == 0)
{
// migrate the user account
MembershipCreateStatus status;
MembershipUser newUser = Membership.CreateUser(Login1.UserName, Login1.Password, parameters["@Email"].Value.ToString(), "What is your Username?", Login1.UserName, true, out status);

if (status == MembershipCreateStatus.Success)
{
// update legacy user with new membership user id, tying the old to the new
parameters = new DataParameters("@UserId", SqlDbType.Int, Login1.UserName);
parameters.Add("@MembershipUserId", SqlDbType.UniqueIdentifier, newUser.ProviderUserKey);
DataUtility.ExecuteNonQuery("ConnectionString", CommandType.StoredProcedure, "UpdateUser", parameters);
// Create an empty Profile for the newly created user
ProfileCommon profile = (ProfileCommon)ProfileCommon.Create(Login1.UserName, true);
// Populate default profile values
profile.Theme = "Default";
// Save the profile
profile.Save();
e.Authenticated = true;
return;
}
else
Login1.FailureText = "We were unable to migrate you user account. Please contact support for further assistance.";
}
e.Authenticated = false;
}

So, with the little bit of code above, I'm able to authenticate and migrate legacy user accounts to the new membership system without breaking the existing db schema. It may not be as elegant as writing your own provider, but in my case, it was equally as effective.

The remodel/updating begins

Chris Kirby — Fri, 26 May 2006 22:44:00 GMT

I just posted several new photos and videos of some of the demo and cleanup we started doing at the new house. To my surprise, we actually gutted enough stuff to completely fill up a 30 yard construction dumpster! Check em' out

Moving to the GP

Chris Kirby — Mon, 01 May 2006 16:34:00 GMT

In about 4 weeks Hayley and I will be leaving our condo in The Clem and moving to our new house in Grosse Pointe Park. Though I've said many times that I would never live in Grosse Pointe, I have to admit the houses there are pretty hard to match. The most enticing feature for me, after we began looking at these old houses, was their accessible 3rd level attic areas. And when I say accessible, I mean and actual door and staircase which lead up to 1 or more finished or unfinished rooms. Our new house has 1 finished room (10x14) and 1 unfinished on the 3 floor, which had me hooked right away. Now, to those who are familiar or who grew up in old houses, this may seem like nothing special; but, to those, like myself, who grew up in relatively new home or in the modern suburbs, having an accessible 3rd level is a whole new experience. For Hayley and I in particular, it has the unique benefit of allowing us to keep our home office (we both work from home) separate and on its own floor. 3rd level aside though, the house has many other cool amenities common to old homes, such as 80 year old red oak floors throughout, leaded glass windows on the exterior of the house as well as many of the doors in the home (most of these old houses have 1 or more doors for every room in the house), plaster walls, and radiator heat throughout.

Now, with that said, all that charm definitely comes at a price ;). Over the coming months I will be posting some details on the various projects I have planed to make the house more energy efficient and retrofitting it for a high tech and gadget lifestyle. Should be fun!