How can I implement SignInManager without a database for a development environment?

Question

I am trying enable authorization and authentication on a Web Application using ASP.NET Identity. I am trying to use the SignInManager, but when it calls PasswordSignInAsync it is looking for a database. Is there any way to use it with in-memory data (a collection of users for example) for testing purposes?

I am using the default ApplicationUser class(Model).

public class ApplicationUser : IdentityUser
{

    public Guid UserId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Password { get; set; }
 }

And this is the Login ActionResult method on the controller.

[HttpPost]
public async Task<ActionResult> Login(LoginViewModel viewModel, string returnUrl)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        var signInResult = await _signInManager.PasswordSignInAsync(viewModel.Email, viewModel.Password,
                                                                   true, false);
        if (signInResult.Succeeded)
            ......
    }
}

The _signInManager.PasswordSignInAsync call looks for a database and I don't see any useful overloads to do anything different.

Answer 1

You can use SignInAsync method instead and create a user object in memory, the following code worked for me to sign in a user that does not exist in database.

var appUser = new ApplicationUser
{
    Id = 1,
    UserName = viewModel.UserName,
    Email = viewModel.UserName,
    SecurityStamp = Guid.NewGuid().ToString()
};
try
{
    var userPrincipal = await _signInManager.CreateUserPrincipalAsync(appUser);
    foreach(var claim in userPrincipal.Claims)
    {
        appUser.Claims.Add(new ApplicationUserClaim { UserId = appUser.Id, ClaimType = claim.Type, ClaimValue = claim.Value });
    }
    await _signInManager.SignInAsync(appUser, viewModel.RememberMe);
    return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Log Exception
    ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, "Invalid login");
    return View();
}

The other option is to customise identity storage providers to use your none persistance storage (e.g. EF7 InMemoryDatabase).

see the following link for more information

identity-custom-storage-providers