How to get the current user in ASP.NET MVC

c# .net asp.net-mvc iis forms-authentication

390,249

Solution 1

If you need to get the user from within the controller, use the User property of Controller. If you need it from the view, I would populate what you specifically need in the ViewData, or you could just call User as I think it's a property of ViewPage.

Solution 2

I found that User works, that is, User.Identity.Name or User.IsInRole("Administrator").

Solution 3

Try HttpContext.Current.User.

Public Shared Property Current() As System.Web.HttpContext
Member of System.Web.HttpContext

Summary:
Gets or sets the System.Web.HttpContext object for the current HTTP request.

Return Values:
The System.Web.HttpContext for the current HTTP request

Solution 4

You can get the name of the user in ASP.NET MVC4 like this:

System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name

Solution 5

I realize this is really old, but I'm just getting started with ASP.NET MVC, so I thought I'd stick my two cents in:

Request.IsAuthenticated tells you if the user is authenticated.
Page.User.Identity gives you the identity of the logged-in user.

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390,249

Serhat Ozgel

Software developer and consultant. Areas of expertise: Web application and api development, software development, cloud architecture, mobile application backend development, e-commerce software development and integration.

Updated on July 08, 2022

Comments

Serhat Ozgel almost 2 years
In a forms model, I used to get the current logged-in user by:
```
Page.CurrentUser
```
How do I get the current user inside a controller class in ASP.NET MVC?
Serhat Ozgel over 15 years

Where does this Membership class come from? IntelliSense does not recognize it by default.
Serhat Ozgel over 15 years

Apparently HttpContext does not have a property named "Current".
Sean over 15 years

The System.Web.Security namespace. I'm not positive this is useful in MVC but I use it with the login controls for Web Forms.
Jeff Sheldon over 15 years

I believe you two are talking about two different things. System.Web.HttpContext and the static property: System.Web.Mvc.Controller.HttpContext (Which does not have a "Current" property.
mawaldne over 14 years

"or you could just call User as I think it's a property of ViewPage" - So do you mean use Page.user when you're in the view?
Wagner Danda da Silva Filho almost 14 years

That worked on a non-MVC environment, just what I needed. Thanks! :)
jamiebarrow over 13 years

It's useful in any ASP.NET application that uses the Membership providers.
Mike Cole over 11 years

This will actually make a database request. HttpContext.Current.User doesn't.
Jed Grant almost 11 years

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work anymore in MVC 5. Not sure why =/
Sean almost 10 years

Yes, you can use it like, "Hi, @User.Identity.Name!" in the cshtml.
Paul over 9 years

Just to add to this, if you're working in a class outside of a form you'll either need to Imports System.Web and further qualify with with HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name, or directly qualify using the full syntax: System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name
ryanyuyu almost 9 years

While this code may answer the question, it would be better to include some context, explain how it works, and describe when to use it. Code-only answers are not useful in the long run.
GrandMasterFlush almost 9 years

System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name returns the current user logged into Windows, the OP is asking for the user currently logged into the web site.
Simple Sandman about 8 years

If you are getting this error 'System.Web.HttpContextBase' does not contain a definition for 'Current' and no extension method 'Current' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Web.HttpContextBase' could be found, I would suggest making an absolute call like this, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name.
usefulBee almost 8 years

This works only inside a Controller; or if your ViewModel inherits from Controller
usefulBee almost 8 years

Works inside a Controller and if using a ViewModel either inherit from Controller or follow Paul's suggestion.
PineCone almost 8 years

Only System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name works in MVC 5. However that pulls up the domain name with the username. i.e. domain\username
Beau D'Amore over 7 years

I do not believe so, as this is explicitly using your Active Directory user credentials. Why would you have 'Forms' if you desire your users to be authenticated via AD?
Patee Gutee over 7 years

In our organization, there are locations where we have a couple of workstations that are shared by several "field" personnel. Because of that, we are required to add the login page to our intranet web applications.
Beau D'Amore over 7 years

as a workaround: you could have two copies of this app running, one in 'Forms' mode with it's own identity tables or you can mix both in one app, but it's trickier. A quick google revealed this: stackoverflow.com/questions/2250921/…
Beau D'Amore over 7 years

<identity impersonate="true" /> might need to change if mixing
Gilberto B. Terra Jr. over 7 years

This method return a System.Guid
Samra almost 7 years

User.Identity.Name is an instance of System.Security.Principal.IPrincipal which does not have an id property... Is this User different from User.Identity.GetUserId 's User object
Jason Geiger almost 5 years

This gets you the username of the AppPool that the application is running as.
rickyProgrammer over 3 years

hi @rajbaral This worked for me, what if i want to extract the other information from the current user from the db, example address field.
Raj Baral over 3 years

@rickyProgrammer you need to write a method to get UserProfile from your AD using that userName
Lemiarty about 2 years

var userName = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name; This is just straight up incorrect information. This call will get you the identity of the Application Pool and not of the web user.