Getting Started with ASP.NET Core Identity: User Authentication Made Easy

 ASP.NET Core Identity is a membership system that allows you to add user authentication and authorization capabilities to your ASP.NET Core web applications. It provides a set of APIs and services for managing user accounts, such as user registration, login, password management, and role-based authorization.

To get started with ASP.NET Core Identity, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a new ASP.NET Core project

• Open Visual Studio or your preferred code editor.
• Create a new ASP.NET Core project by selecting the appropriate project template, such as "ASP.NET Core Web Application."
• Choose the desired project options, such as the project name and location, and select ASP.NET Core version 2.1 or higher.

Step 2: Install the required packages

• Open the NuGet Package Manager Console or use the .NET CLI to install the necessary packages.
• Install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore package, which includes the Identity system.

• 
  Install-Package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore
  

Step 3: Configure Identity in your application

• Open the Startup.cs file in your project.
• In the ConfigureServices method, add the Identity services by calling the AddIdentity<TUser, TRole> method, where TUser is the type of your user class and TRole is the type of your role class.

• 
  services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, IdentityRole>()
      .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
      .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

Step 4: Configure database connection

• By default, Identity uses Entity Framework Core to store user and role information in a database. Configure the database connection in the Startup.cs file.
• Add a database connection string to the appsettings.json file.
• In the ConfigureServices method, configure the database context by calling the AddDbContext<TContext> method and passing the database connection string.
• 
  

• 
  services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
      options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));

Step 5: Create the user and role classes

• Create a class that represents a user in your application by inheriting from the IdentityUser class.

• 
  public class ApplicationUser : IdentityUser
  {
  }

• If you need role-based authorization, create a class that represents a role by inheriting from the IdentityRole class.

• 
  public class ApplicationRole : IdentityRole
  {
  }

Step 6: Add Identity to the application pipeline

• In the Configure method of the Startup.cs file, add the UseAuthentication and UseAuthorization middleware to the application pipeline.

• 
  app.UseAuthentication();
  app.UseAuthorization();

Step 7: Register and login users

• In your application's controllers or views, you can now use the UserManager<TUser> and SignInManager<TUser> services to handle user registration, login, and other authentication-related tasks.
• Inject the UserManager and SignInManager into your controller or view by adding them as constructor parameters.

• 
  private readonly UserManager<ApplicationUser> _userManager;
  private readonly SignInManager<ApplicationUser> _signInManager;
  
  public AccountController(
      UserManager<ApplicationUser> userManager,
      SignInManager<ApplicationUser> signInManager)
  {
      _userManager = userManager;
      _signInManager = signInManager;
  }

This is just a basic overview of getting started with ASP.NET Core Identity. There are many more features and customization options available, such as two-factor authentication, email confirmation, and external authentication providers. You can refer to the official Microsoft documentation for more detailed information and examples: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/authentication/identity-configuration