How to store additional user info?

Question

Here's the issue at hand: I have developed an ASP.NET MVC3 application using Razor. I have also implemented a custom membership provider and overridden the ValidateUser() method. Within, I query my db and get a lot of user information in addition to the password auth.

At the moment, I am pushing this information, i.e. companyId, to static properties of a class. This works and I can display/use this information throughout my app. The problem arises when a user closes their browser tab. Upon re-opening the app, the user is authenticated via a cookie, so they don't need to re-login; however, those static variables are blown away.

So guys and girls, how would/do you conquer this issue? Should I append the extra info to the session cookie? Or perhaps a better solution?

Answer 1

For application level variables, they are going to be subject to application pool recycles and similar "simulated" restarts related to users starting all over. These variables should be completely independent of user usage and should be able to be recreated easily. If you have variables that are user dependent or that can't be restored easily without some sort of outside intervention then you will definitely need a different method of storage.

If the data is user specific, storing it in the session cookie is probably the best idea. If the data is user-related but branches multiple users it should be stored in a database or a flat file somewhere. If the data has nothing to do with users specifically then it should just be in a database or configuration file.

Answer 2

Use the ProfileProvider in ASP.NET.