How to: Enable Profiles in RIA Services

Article
08/19/2013

[WCF RIA Services Version 1 Service Pack 2 is compatible with either .NET framework 4 or .NET Framework 4.5, and with either Silverlight 4 or Silverlight 5.]

This topic demonstrates how to enable profiles in your WCF RIA Services solution if you have previously enabled authentication. Using profiles, you can retrieve and save properties for a user. Profiles in RIA Services build upon the profiles framework in ASP.NET. For more information about ASP.NET profiles, see ASP.NET Profile Properties Overview.

You can retrieve or save user profile properties only after the user has been authenticated. To configure the server and client projects for authentication, see How to: Enable Authentication in RIA Services.

To configure the server project

In the server project, open the Web.config file.
In the <system.web> section, add a <profile> element.

In the <profile> element, add profile properties.

The following example shows how to enable a profile and define a property named FriendlyName.

<system.web>
  <authentication mode="Forms"></authentication>
  <profile enabled="true">
    <properties>
      <add name="FriendlyName"/>
    </properties>
  </profile>
</system.web>

Open the file that contains the User class for the authentication service.

In the User class, add all of the profile properties that you added to the Web.config file.

The following example shows how to add a property named FriendlyName that matches the property added to the Web.config file.

Partial Public Class User
    Inherits UserBase

    Private _FriendlyName As String

    <DataMember()> _
    Public Property FriendlyName() As String
        Get
            Return _FriendlyName
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _FriendlyName = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

public partial class User : UserBase
{

    [DataMember]
    public string FriendlyName { get; set; }
}

To access profile properties from the client project

In the Silverlight client project, open a code-behind page.
In the code-behind page, set or retrieve profile properties on the User object of the current instance of WebContext.

The following example shows how to set a profile property in a code-behind file.
```
WebContext.Current.User.FriendlyName = "Mike"
```
```
WebContext.Current.User.FriendlyName = "Mike";
```

If you want to make the WebContext object available in XAML, add the current WebContext instance to the application resources in the Application.Startup event before creating the root visual.

The following example shows how to add the WebContext instance as an application resource.

Private Sub Application_Startup(ByVal o As Object, ByVal e As StartupEventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
    Me.Resources.Add("WebContext", WebContext.Current)
    Me.RootVisual = New MainPage()
End Sub

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
    this.Resources.Add("WebContext", WebContext.Current);
    this.RootVisual = new MainPage();
}

Using declarative syntax, you can retrieve the profile property. The following example shows how to retrieve a profile property in XAML.

<TextBlock Text={Binding Source={StaticResource WebContext}, Path=User.FriendlyName}"/>

How to: Enable Profiles in RIA Services

To configure the server project

To access profile properties from the client project

See Also

Tasks

Additional resources