start with SimpleMembership in MVC 4 within visual studio 2012 - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am creating web app in MVC 4 that is require custom Login, authentication and role based system. My intention is to use SimpleMembership and SimpleRole but struggling to start with and grasp its basic implication within my app.
I have already database say for example DB1.mdf and have created Users table with userId and UserName. I believe i need to initialize simplemembership with existing database??? and i dont want system create database itself if it doesn't find, as it is doing in default internet template created by visual studio 2012.
many thanks in advanced...

Answer 1

SimpleMembership was not developed for extensive customization or integrating to existing databases. To use an existing database you want to create your own membership provider just like you always have in ASP.NET. You can find direction on creating your own membership provider here.

Answer 2

You need to use WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseFile tell MVC.NET that you already have a database and a Users table. Then, make sure that the provider uses it upon initialization. So create an ActionFilterAttribute that ensures the Simple Membership provider is initialized, for example:
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public sealed class InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
private static SimpleMembershipInitializer _initializer;
private static object _initializerLock = new object();
private static bool _isInitialized;
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
// Ensure ASP.NET Simple Membership is initialized only once per app start
LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(ref _initializer, ref _isInitialized, ref _initializerLock);
}
private class SimpleMembershipInitializer
{
public SimpleMembershipInitializer()
{
try
{
if (!WebSecurity.Initialized)
{
WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection", "Users", "UserId", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The ASP.NET Simple Membership database could not be initialized. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256588", ex);
}
}
}
}
Then you will need to register the filter:
public class FilterConfig
{
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
filters.Add(new InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute());
}
}
EDIT:
Thanks to constructive criticism I've removed the code that decorates controllers with the attribute since adding it globally already takes care of the problem. If you decide not to use it globally you will need to decorate other controllers with it since, as explained on this question, you will notice that users may be authenticated with cookies and redirected to other controllers without passing first by your AccountController.
Also, Jon Galloway shows in this post how you can point to your existing database by using:
WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseFile("SecurityDemo.sdf", "Users", "UserID", "Username", true);