Simplemembership Login and RemeberMe ASP.Net MVC4 - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am using ASP.net MVC4 with SimpleMemberShip.
I simply want to store the username if the remember me checkbox is ticked and reload it from the cookie.
Login works fine, RememberMe is set to true. But Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName] is always null. I am confused on how this is supposed to work.
Login Controller:
[HttpPost]
[AllowAnonymous]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Index(LoginModel model, string returnUrl)
{
bool RememberMe = model.RememberMe == "on" ? true : false;
if (WebSecurity.Login(model.UserName, model.Password, persistCookie: RememberMe))
{
return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
}
// If we got this far, something failed, redisplay form
ModelState.AddModelError("", "The user name or password provided is incorrect.");
return View(model);
}
Login Page Controller:
[AllowAnonymous]
public ActionResult Index(string returnUrl)
{
// load user name
HttpCookie authCookie = Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName];
if (authCookie != null)
{
FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);
ViewBag.Username = Server.HtmlEncode(ticket.Name);
ViewBag.RememberMeSet = true;
}
else
{
ViewBag.RememberMeSet = false;
}
ViewBag.ReturnUrl = returnUrl;
return View();
}

Answer 1

I wanted to get the username saved by clicking the "Remember me" checkbox. I now understand the cookie is null unless logged in so it was of no use on a login page. For reference I have added my solution below.
Handle Login Request Controller:
[HttpPost]
[AllowAnonymous]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Index(LoginModel model, string returnUrl)
{
// handle remembering username on login page
bool RememberMe = model.RememberMe == "on" ? true : false;
HttpCookie existingCookie = Request.Cookies["xxx_username"];
if (RememberMe)
{
// check if cookie exists and if yes update
if (existingCookie != null)
{
// force to expire it
existingCookie.Expires = DateTime.Today.AddMonths(12);
}
else
{
// create a cookie
HttpCookie newCookie = new HttpCookie("xxx_username", model.UserName);
newCookie.Expires = DateTime.Today.AddMonths(12);
Response.Cookies.Add(newCookie);
}
}
else
{
// remove cookie
if (existingCookie != null)
{
Response.Cookies["xxx_username"].Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1);
}
}
if ((!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.UserName)) && (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.Password)))
{
if (WebSecurity.Login(model.UserName, model.Password, RememberMe))
{
return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
}
}
// If we got this far, something failed, redisplay form
TempData["ErrorMsg"] = "Login failed";
return View(model);
}
Display Login Page Controller:
[AllowAnonymous]
public ActionResult Index(string returnUrl)
{
// load user name
HttpCookie existingCookie = Request.Cookies["xxx_username"];
if (existingCookie != null)
{
ViewBag.Username = existingCookie.Value;
ViewBag.RememberMeSet = true;
}
else
{
ViewBag.RememberMeSet = false;
}
ViewBag.ReturnUrl = returnUrl;
return View();
}