Authenticating users is a common task—one with which all web application developers should be familiar. In Classic ASP, Dreamweaver developers have long had the convenience of the built-in Macromedia Server Behaviours for implementing forms based authentication and authorization schemes. Needed security features such as Login User or Login User with Levels (Roles in Windows parlance) and Create New User are a simple point and click away. When the Dreamweaver team implemented support for ASP.NET these familiar—and easy to use, server behaviours somehow never made it into the package. While many have wondered why this important functionality seems to have been left out, I wondered what it would take to implement it. And that leads to numerous and interesting questions.
But first before you get too involved, let’s see if you’re ready. This tutorial makes some assumptions about your skill level--that is, this tutorial is intended for intermediate users. If you’ve never configured a new site in Dreamweaver, never configured a database connection string, or never used the Dreamweaver database connectivity tools, this tutorial is probably not for you as you’ll need to be familiar with these concepts and techniques. If you have done these things but have very little or no experience hand coding, writing SQL statements, using the Dreamweaver advanced Dataset Dialog, don’t worry we’re doing this together and I’ll to do my part to bring you along.
James W. Threadgill has authored numerous tutorials on ASP and ASP.NET web development, published on such sites as the Dynamic Zones and MSDN Accademic Alliance. He co-authored the Sam's book Dreamweaver MX: ASP.NET Web Development.
