membership Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)

Configures parameters for managing and authenticating user accounts by using ASP.NET membership.

This element is new in the .NET Framework version 2.0.

<configuration> Element
  system.web Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)
    membership Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)

<membership
    defaultProvider="provider name"
    userIsOnlineTimeWindow="number of minutes"
    hashAlgorithmType="SHA1">
    <providers>...</providers>
</membership>

Attributes and Elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute	Description
defaultProvider	Optional String attribute. The name of the default membership provider. For more information, see Provider. The default is AspNetSqlProvider.
userIsOnlineTimeWindow	Optional String attribute. Specifies the number of minutes after the last activity date-time stamp for a user account during which the user is considered online. The default is 15 minutes.
hashAlgorithmType	Optional String attribute. Specifies the name of the encryption algorithm that is used to hash password values. The value of this attribute corresponds to the name attribute of a nameEntry element in the cryptoNameMapping configuration section. For information about specifying a custom hash algorithm, see Mapping Algorithm Names to Cryptography Classes. The default is SHA1.

Child Elements

Element	Description
providers	Optional element. Defines a collection of membership providers.

Parent Elements

Element	Description
configuration	Specifies the required root element in every configuration file that is used by the common language runtime and the .NET Framework applications.
system.web	Specifies the root element for the ASP.NET configuration section.

Remarks

For information about accessing and modifying configuration values for the membership element in application code, see MembershipSection.

Default Configuration

The following default membership element is configured in the Machine.config file in the .NET Framework version 2.0.

<membership>
      <providers>
        <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="LocalSqlServer" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Hashed" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="7" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1" passwordAttemptWindow="10" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" />
      </providers>

</membership>

Example

The following code example shows how to configure an ASP.NET application to use the SqlMembershipProvider provider to store and retrieve user account information.

<configuration>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="SqlServices" 
             connectionString="Data Source=MySqlServer;Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial 
             Catalog=aspnetdb;" />
    </connectionStrings>
    <system.web>
        <membership 
             defaultProvider="SqlProvider"
             userIsOnlineTimeWindow="20">
             <providers>
                <remove name="AspNetSqlProvider" />
                <add name="SqlProvider"
                    type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
                    connectionStringName="SqlServices"
                    enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
                    enablePasswordReset="true"
                    requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"
                    passwordFormat="Hashed"
                    applicationName="/" />
            </providers>
        </membership>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Element Information

Configuration section handler	System.Web.Configuration.MembershipSection
Configuration member	Membership
Configurable locations	Machine.config Root-level Web.config Application-level Web.config
Requirements	Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 5.0, 5.1, or 6.0 The .NET Framework version 2.0 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

See Also

Tasks

How to: Lock ASP.NET Configuration Settings

Concepts

ASP.NET Configuration Overview

ASP.NET Web Server Controls and Browser Capabilities

Securing ASP.NET Configuration

ASP.NET Configuration Scenarios

Reference

system.web Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)

<configuration> Element

providers Element for membership (ASP.NET Settings Schema)

System.Configuration

System.Web.Configuration

Other Resources

Managing Users by Using Membership

ASP.NET Configuration Files

ASP.NET Configuration Settings

General Configuration Settings (ASP.NET)

ASP.NET Configuration API