Access .NET Membership on Live or Local provider

Question

In my web.config file I have two SQL Server connection strings, one for local and one for live:

<connectionStrings>
    <remove name="LocalSqlServer" />
    <add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="[removed]" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
    <add name="LiveSqlServer" connectionString="[removed]" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

I then have a "utils" singleton class which basically sets the connection string depending if I'm running the site on "localhost" or on my live server:

if (Environment.MachineName.ToUpper() == MyOwnConfig.GetAppSettingsValue(ConfigKeys.localhost).ToUpper()) {
    this.ConnectionString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LocalSqlServer"].ToString();
    //MembershipProvider provider = Membership.Providers["LocalAspNetMemberSqlProvider"];
    //RoleProvider role = Roles.Providers["LocalAspNetMemberSqlProvider"];
}
else {
    this.ConnectionString = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["LiveSqlServer"].ToString();
    //MembershipProvider provider = Membership.Providers["LiveAspNetMemberSqlProvider"];
    //RoleProvider role = Roles.Providers["LiveAspNetMemberSqlProvider"];
}

My Database class then simply uses the connectionString property of my utils class. All this works fine so when I place the site locally I can then simply upload it to live without making changes to the connection strings etc in the config file and it starts using my live database.

Now I'm currently implementing "membership" into my site and for ajax for use some webmethods I'm storing the providerUserKey in a text field of the current logged in user. my web method then checks that this key is authenticated. e.g.

ajaxCreds.ajaxID1 = ((MembershipUser)Membership.GetUser()).ProviderUserKey.ToString();

QUESTION: the question I have is How do I know if this membership is from the LIVE database or my LOCAL database. As you can see from the web config I've added in the membership/provider lines (commented out) but I don't know how to use them with the above membership.getUser() command.

Alternative... Is this a good way to go? or is it simpler to edit the web.config file when I upload to live?

Many thanks

Answer 1

Most people don't do it this way though I applaud you for figuring all this out. Typically, people use the deployment manager or some other build system to have a different web.config value on the server verses local.

Here is a link on changing in deployment: How do I use Web.Config transform on my connection strings?