2

Hai, i am trying to store the user permissions for my web site.But I am little bit confused with xml and Database. For each user in site have different permissions. Have u ever faced this issue? for Example , if my site is a shopping site , for a local user , the report menu need not to display. A sales man need not to display the purchase page. and so on ..

I think you understood my problem .I have done this user management using a xml file . For each user a new node will create according to the menu and keep in the xml file . Next time the user login ,checks the permissions and and show only the allowed menus.

My boss tell me to do the same thing using the Database. by using XmlDataSource it is quite simple to bind data to the treeview (for setting permission) and binding to the menustrip also. He is pointing the security problem . i don't think like so.

Which is better ? DB or XML

Vibin Jith
  • 923
  • 3
  • 15
  • 34

4 Answers4

1

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yh26yfzy.aspx

Joby Kurian
  • 3,699
  • 4
  • 30
  • 38
1

My advice would be to use asp.net membership and roles (written by Microsoft). It is a very good security solution - login security, roles (permissions) and is stored in a SQLServer database (not sure if it can be stored elsewhere).

I use it on my site and you can use membership controls straight out of the box (login forms, change password, etc.) or you can roll your own.

The only tricky bit I found was setting up the membership tables, views and stored procs in my dB (you download a dB script), but really it was fairly straightforward to implement.

Here's a link to asp.net membership and roles

adrianos
  • 1,501
  • 2
  • 18
  • 22
1

ASP .NET Membership and Roles (part of the Provider Model introduced on ASP .NET 2) is (IMHO) nice only when you need some basic stuff. The issue is that you need to use the whole system using SQL Server, but if you are planning to move to a different DB provider (MySQL, SQLite, etc..) then you'd have to implement your own provider (which is at best painful), and learn how the whole pieces fit each other. Granted, finding a custom implementation it's quite easy, but is not a copy & paste thing.

Another bad thing of the default provider model is that you will get a ton of SQL stored procedures, also called maintainance nightmares. The issue is that if your site scales, then these SP's will make your life a living hell (been there) and if you even dare to change hostings then you're in for a treat, so my advice would be make your own permissions hierarchy and use it the way you wish. Also, look for advices and some pre-existing solutions to the permissions problem which is quite common.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
David Conde
  • 4,631
  • 2
  • 35
  • 48
0

Website security can be split up into to distinct parts.

  1. Authentication: Logging in
  2. Authroization: Roles/Permissions.

The ASP.NET Forms Authentication Provider is a great way to implement authentication. I recently created a custom provider that communicates with our companies X500 directory (LDAP). It was very straight forward.

For Authorization, we implemented the entlib security application block. It allows you to keep Roles/Permissions in a separate location that can be accessed by your UI as well as your service layers (assuming your developing a scale-able solution). You may also want to look at the Windows Itentity Foundation which is slated to supersede entlib security application block, however it is only available for .NET 4.0.

rie819
  • 1,249
  • 12
  • 19