Difference between FormsAuthentication and WebSecurity

Question

I am exploring the possibilities of ASP.NET MVC in the example webapplication of Visual Studio the WebMatrix.WebData.WebSecurity is used for Membership (creating accounts, and specify that a user is logged in to view a specific page etc.). But after some searching I found that there is also a System.Web.Security.FormsAuthentication class that can be used for Membership.

Does anybody know the differences/pro's and cons between these two classes? And when to use WebSecurity and when to use FormsAuthentication? (and maybe a clear example of FormsAuthentication)

Thanks in advance

Solution 1

WebSecurity was introduced in WebMatrix 2 and ASP.NET MVC 4. It relies on the SimpleMembershipProvider. Under the covers it uses FormsAuthentication to manage cookies. So I guess that if you are starting a new project you would opt for the new model if this model fits your needs. Bare in mind that the SimpleMembershipProvider exposes less functionality than the original provider.

The original membership provider uses the SqlMembershipProvider which in turn uses plain ADO.NET to query the database.

The SimpleMembershipProvider uses the new Database class introduced in WebMatrix to query the SQL database.

Solution 2

The main differences between old ASP.NET Membership provider and SimpleMembershipProvider are explained in this good article - http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2012/08/29/simplemembership-membership-providers-universal-providers-and-the-new-asp-net-4-5-web-forms-and-asp-net-mvc-4-templates.aspx

It is better to use SimpleMembershipProvider (WebMatrix.WebData.WebSecurity) than old ASP.NET Membership Provider (or Universal Providers)