I'm trying to implement my own LoginManager. To do that I started from the security sample (found at "C:\Program Files\IdeaBlade DevForce\Learning Resources\090_Security\Code Samples\300 Common\CodeCS\Security_ConsoleUI").

I managed to get my own LogingManager working very will following the same design strategy.

 

However how do I use that sample when replacing the console client for a SilverLight client?

 

In the console client I do this to login:

 

 

Here is my app.config file in the Domain Model:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="ideablade.configuration" type="IdeaBlade.Core.Configuration.IdeaBladeSection, IdeaBlade.Core, Version=5.2.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=287b5094865421c0" />
  </configSections>
  <ideablade.configuration version="5.00" updateFromDomainModelConfig="Ask">
    <probeAssemblyNames>
      <probeAssemblyName name="C2NetServer" />
    </probeAssemblyNames>
    <logging logFile="DebugLog.xml" />
    <objectServer isDistributed="false" remoteBaseURL=" http://localhost - http://localhost " serverPort="9009" serviceName="EntityService" />
    <edmKeys>
      <edmKey name="Default" connection="metadata=res://ServerModelC2Net/ServerModelC2Net.csdl|res://ServerModelC2Net/ServerModelC2Net.ssdl|res://ServerModelC2Net/ServerModelC2Net.msl;provider=IBM.Data.DB2;provider connection string=&quot;Database=c2net;User ID=userA;Password=passwordA;Server=192.168.1.71:9091;Persist Security Info=True&quot;" containerName="ServerModelC2Net.C2NetEntities">
        <probeAssemblyNames>
          <probeAssemblyName name="C2NetDomainModel" />
          <probeAssemblyName name="ServerModelC2Net" />
        </probeAssemblyNames>
      </edmKey>
    </edmKeys>
  </ideablade.configuration>
</configuration>

 

Note the red lines.  I have also checked if the settings is in web.config of the web-broject, and it is. It is also in the SilverLight application project.

Please not my previous posting: It works perfectly when using a console client, but not when calling LoginAsync() from my Silverlight client. 
So what more is needed?

I found the problem. the web project has to have a reference to the LoginManager assembly. After that  my LoginManager is created and it's Login method is called. However when returned to the client I get this message in args.Error.Message (silverlight application login user callback method):

 

 

The clientApplicationType='Silverlight' is set in Web.config. So what is cusing that there is no response.

Here is my simple LoginManager.Login method for testing purpose only (it only returns a valid IPrincipal, no validation done):

 

 

The reason you see two Login calls is because DevForce retry logic kicked in after the first failed login and tried one more time.

 

I'd guess the problem is in the serializability of the return type.  DevForce Silverlight uses the DataContractSerializer, which needs to be told about "known types".  DevForce defines the GenericPrincipal as a KnownType, but you should also either derive AppIdentity from the IdeaBlade.EntityModel.IKnownType marker interface or decorate it with the IdeaBlade.EntityModel.DiscoverableType(DiscoverableTypeMode.KnownType) attribute.

 

Edit - I wasn't familiar with the tutorial and just took a look - the AppIdentity class is not usable in Silverlight right now.  The Serializable attribute isn't supported in SL, so the class either needs to be left undecorated or to use the DataContract/DataMember attributes.  Unfortunately without public setters the class still won't serialize. 

 

For your testing purposes, why not just return the GenericIdentity?  Our Documentation Manager will make a new working AppIdentity available soon.

The documentation is horrible and there is a huge lack of samples.

So many of us are trying to do this in the fog by trial & error and not full understanding of how things work.

Anyway I changed:

 

public class AppIdentity : IIdentity

  to

public class AppIdentity : IIdentity , IdeaBlade.EntityModel.IKnownType

 

Now when I run this the LoginManager.Login method is called only once but this error message is returned to the client:

 

The formatter threw an exception while trying to deserialize the message: There was an error while trying to deserialize parameter http://ideablade.com/EntityModel:LoginResult - http://ideablade.com/EntityModel:LoginResult . The InnerException message was 'Element 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Security.Principal:m_identity' contains data of the 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/C2NetDomainModel:AppIdentity' data contract. The deserializer has no knowledge of any type that maps to this contract. Add the type corresponding to 'AppIdentity' to the list of known types - for example, by using the KnownTypeAttribute attribute or by adding it to the list of known types passed to DataContractSerializer.'.  Please see InnerException for more details.

 

Am I doing the right thing? What exactly do you mean with "decorate" in your reply.

A Silverlight application has to be able to send and receive data between the client application and the web server, so that data needs to be serializable.  The DataContractSerializer used by the EntityServer (which is the default for any WCF service) is quite picky about understanding all the types involved.  When you create a custom type - such as AppIdentity here - and want to use it on both sides of the application, then the type must be serializable and often must be made "known".   DevForce allows you to make a type known via either the attribute or interface mentioned earlier.

 

We'll look at beefing up our documentation and samples.

 

But probably I can bybass that when I understand this messy thing better.

 

Another thing I noticed in your reply is the discussion about UserBase class. This class does not seem to be recognizable by Visual Studio 2008 and although I have googled the world around I do not find any usable information about it.  It is mentioned in the DevForce User Guide but not how to use it, what assembly it is in and so on.

 

Can you tell me how to use it?

Custom identities are supported right now, you just have to jump through the hoops I've mentioned above to get it working.  Here's one -

 

[System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContract] public class AppIdentity2 : GenericIdentity, IdeaBlade.EntityModel.IKnownType {    public AppIdentity2(long userId, string userName) : base(userName) {      UserId = userId;    }    [System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember]    public long UserId {       get;       set;    } }

 

IdeaBlade.EntityModel.UserBase is defined in the IdeaBlade.EntityModel.Web and IdeaBlade.EntityModel.SL assemblies.  It uses the UserIdentity class (defined in the same namespace and assemblies as UserBase) for its IIdentity implementation, so would not give you the integer UserID you need.  You can still try it out, though, just add a reference to the IdeaBlade.EntityModel.Web assembly from your assembly containing the LoginManager. 

 

We'll get a version of AppIdentity which can be used in DevForce Silverlight available as soon as we can.