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membership Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)

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Configures parameters for managing and authenticating user accounts by using ASP.NET membership.

This element is new in the .NET Framework version 2.0.

<membership
    defaultProvider="provider name"
    userIsOnlineTimeWindow="number of minutes"
    hashAlgorithmType="SHA1">
    <providers>...</providers>
</membership>

Attributes and Elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute Description

defaultProvider

Optional String attribute.

The name of the default membership provider. For more information, see Provider.

The default is AspNetSqlProvider.

userIsOnlineTimeWindow

Optional String attribute.

Specifies the number of minutes after the last activity date-time stamp for a user account during which the user is considered online.

The default is 15 minutes.

hashAlgorithmType

Optional String attribute.

Specifies the name of the encryption algorithm that is used to hash password values.

The value of this attribute corresponds to the name attribute of a nameEntry element in the cryptoNameMapping configuration section. For information about specifying a custom hash algorithm, see Mapping Algorithm Names to Cryptography Classes.

The default is SHA1.

Child Elements

Element Description

providers

Optional element.

Defines a collection of membership providers.

Parent Elements

Element Description

configuration

Specifies the required root element in every configuration file that is used by the common language runtime and the .NET Framework applications.

system.web

Specifies the root element for the ASP.NET configuration section.

Remarks

For information about accessing and modifying configuration values for the membership element in application code, see MembershipSection.

Default Configuration

The following default membership element is configured in the Machine.config file in the .NET Framework version 2.0.

<membership>
      <providers>
        <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="LocalSqlServer" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Hashed" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="7" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1" passwordAttemptWindow="10" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" />
      </providers>

</membership>

Example

The following code example shows how to configure an ASP.NET application to use the SqlMembershipProvider provider to store and retrieve user account information.

<configuration>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="SqlServices" 
             connectionString="Data Source=MySqlServer;Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial 
             Catalog=aspnetdb;" />
    </connectionStrings>
    <system.web>
        <membership 
             defaultProvider="SqlProvider"
             userIsOnlineTimeWindow="20">
             <providers>
                <remove name="AspNetSqlProvider" />
                <add name="SqlProvider"
                    type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
                    connectionStringName="SqlServices"
                    enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
                    enablePasswordReset="true"
                    requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
                    passwordFormat="Hashed"
                    applicationName="/" />
            </providers>
        </membership>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Element Information

Configuration section handler

System.Web.Configuration.MembershipSection

Configuration member

Membership

Configurable locations

Machine.config

Root-level Web.config

Application-level Web.config

Requirements

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 5.0, 5.1, or 6.0

The .NET Framework version 2.0

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

See Also

Tasks

How to: Lock ASP.NET Configuration Settings

Reference

system.web Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)
<configuration> Element
providers Element for membership (ASP.NET Settings Schema)
System.Configuration
System.Web.Configuration

Concepts

ASP.NET Configuration Overview
ASP.NET Web Server Controls and Browser Capabilities
Securing ASP.NET Configuration
ASP.NET Configuration Scenarios

Other Resources

Managing Users Using ASP.NET Membership
ASP.NET Configuration Files
ASP.NET Configuration Settings
General Configuration Settings (ASP.NET)
ASP.NET Configuration API