Forms Authentication Classes

The System.Web.Security namespace contains all the classes that are used to implement ASP.NET security in Web server applications. Table 9-6 shows the significant .NET Framework classes on Forms authentication.

Table 9-6. .NET Framework Classes on Forms Authentication

Class	Description
FormsAuthenticationModule	Allows an ASP.NET application to employ Forms authentication.
FormsAuthentication	Provides static methods that deliver helper utilities for manipulating authentication tickets.
FormsAuthenticationTicket	Provides the information represented in an authentication cookie as used by FormsAuthenticationModule .
FormsIdentity	Provides an IIdentity -derived class to be used by FormsAuthenticationModule and allows an application to access the cookie authentication ticket.
FormsAuthenticationEventArgs	Provides data for the FormsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate event.

The public static (shared) properties defined in the FormsAuthentication class are shown in Table 9-7.

Table 9-7. Public Static (Shared) Properties Defined in the FormsAuthentication Class

Public Property	Description
FormsCookieName	Returns the configured cookie name used for the current application.
FormsCookiePath	Returns the configured cookie path used for the current application.

The public static (shared) methods defined in the FormsAuthentication class are shown in Table 9-8.

Table 9-8. Public Static (Shared) Methods Defined in the FormsAuthentication Class

Public Method	Description
Authenticate	Validates the supplied credentials against those contained in the configured credential store and returns true if the credentials are valid or false otherwise .
Decrypt	Returns a FormsAuthenticationTicket object, given an encrypted authentication ticket acquired from an HTTP cookie.
Encrypt	Returns a string containing an encrypted authentication ticket suitable for use in an HTTP cookie, given a FormsAuthenticationTicket .
GetAuthCookie	Overloaded. Creates an authentication cookie for a given username.
GetRedirectUrl	Returns the redirect URL for the original request that caused the redirect to the logon page. If there is no original URL, default.aspx is used.
HashPasswordForStoring-InConfigFile	Produces a hash password suitable for storing in a configuration file, given a password and a string specifying the hash type. (The hashed password is not salted. You have to add salt value.) Password algorithms supported are SHA-1 and MD5.
Initialize	Initializes FormsAuthentication by reading the configuration and getting the cookie values and encryption keys for the given application.
RedirectFromLoginPage	Overloaded. Redirects an authenticated user back to the originally requested URL.
SetAuthCookie	Overloaded. Does not perform redirect, but creates an authentication ticket for the given UserName and attaches it to the cookie's collection of the outgoing response.
SignOut	Removes the authentication ticket by doing a SetForms with an empty value, given an authenticated user. This removes either durable or session cookies.

The public instance properties defined in the FormsAuthenticationTicket class are shown in Table 9-9.

Table 9-9. Public Instance Properties Defined in the FormsAuthenticationTicket Class

Public Property	Description
CookiePath	Returns the path for which the cookie was issued.
Expiration	Returns the date/time at which the cookie expires .
Expired	Returns true if the cookie expired.
IsPersistent	Returns true if a durable cookie was issued. Otherwise, the authentication cookie is scoped to the browser lifetime.
IssueDate	Returns the date/time at which the cookie was originally issued. This can be used for custom expiration schemes.
Name	Returns the username associated with the authentication cookie. A maximum of 32 bytes are stored in the cookie.
UserData	Returns an application-defined string that might have been stored in the cookie.
Version	Returns a byte version number for future use.

The public instance properties defined in the FormsIdentity class are shown in Table 9-10.

Table 9-10. Public Instance Properties Defined in the FormsIdentity Class

Public Property	Description
AuthenticationType	The type of the identity (in this case, "Forms").
IsAuthenticated	Indicates whether authentication took place.
Name	The name of the identity (in this case, the username).
Ticket	Returns the FormsAuthenticationTicket associated with the current request.