Membership.FindUsersByName

[Jonathan Wood]

Can anyone tell me why FindUsersByName() returns a collection? Isn't it
necessary that user names are unique (how else would passwords be
validated?)

And what is the best way to determine if a user name is already in use?
Preferrably, I could do this without raising an exception--I just want to
know whether or not they exist.

Thanks!

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

[=?Utf-8?B?YnJ1Y2UgYmFya2Vy?=]

the function does a sql like and supports sql wildcards, so even though
names are unique, the find can return multiples.

this also means to avoid injection attacks, you should check for sql
wildcard characters in usernames and email addresses.
-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"Jonathan Wood" wrote:

Can anyone tell me why FindUsersByName() returns a collection? Isn't it
necessary that user names are unique (how else would passwords be
validated?)

And what is the best way to determine if a user name is already in use?
Preferrably, I could do this without raising an exception--I just want to
know whether or not they exist.

Thanks!

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

You're looking at the wrong function. The FindUsersByName is not meant to
get a user. It's meant to find a number of users that are similar to the
username entered. The stored procedure behind this uses LIKE instead of =,
this means you could say bob% and get all usernames that begin with bob.

What you want, instead is the GetUser. Best way to see if a user exists is
to just try a call to GetUser and if it returns null, then there is no user.
If it returns a MembershipUser object that isn't null, then you have a user.
--
Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression
"Jonathan Wood" <jw***@softcircuits.comwrote in message
news:ek**************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

Can anyone tell me why FindUsersByName() returns a collection? Isn't it
necessary that user names are unique (how else would passwords be
validated?)

And what is the best way to determine if a user name is already in use?
Preferrably, I could do this without raising an exception--I just want to
know whether or not they exist.

Thanks!

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

[Jonathan Wood]

Ah! Many thanks.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

"bruce barker" <br*********@discussions.microsoft.comwrote in message
news:CB**********************************@microsof t.com...

the function does a sql like and supports sql wildcards, so even though
names are unique, the find can return multiples.

this also means to avoid injection attacks, you should check for sql
wildcard characters in usernames and email addresses.
-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"Jonathan Wood" wrote:

>Can anyone tell me why FindUsersByName() returns a collection? Isn't it
necessary that user names are unique (how else would passwords be
validated?)

And what is the best way to determine if a user name is already in use?
Preferrably, I could do this without raising an exception--I just want to
know whether or not they exist.

Thanks!

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

[Jonathan Wood]

Mark,

You're looking at the wrong function. The FindUsersByName is not meant to
get a user. It's meant to find a number of users that are similar to the
username entered. The stored procedure behind this uses LIKE instead of =,
this means you could say bob% and get all usernames that begin with bob.

I'm not trying to get a user, I'm trying to find the number of users with a
specific user name or, in my case, email.

What you want, instead is the GetUser. Best way to see if a user exists is
to just try a call to GetUser and if it returns null, then there is no
user. If it returns a MembershipUser object that isn't null, then you have
a user.

Here's where I get lost. Scanning the docs, I couldn't see anything about
GetUser returning null. If it does, that's perfect. But instead the
mentality seems to be raise an exception any time things aren't the way a
particular method thinks they should be.

Is there a way I'd be able to tell GetUser can return null on my own? That
would be a great help.

Thanks.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

--
Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression
"Jonathan Wood" <jw***@softcircuits.comwrote in message
news:ek**************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>Can anyone tell me why FindUsersByName() returns a collection? Isn't it
necessary that user names are unique (how else would passwords be
validated?)

And what is the best way to determine if a user name is already in use?
Preferrably, I could do this without raising an exception--I just want to
know whether or not they exist.

Thanks!

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com