Configure MySql .Net Connector with Entity Framework
To communicate from .NET code to MySQL database using Entity Framework we installed MySql .NET Connector. It worked fine out of the box on developer's workstations but once deployed to hosted web server application started to throw following error:
[NotSupportedException: Unable to determine the provider name for connection of type 'MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection'.] System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Utilities.DbConnectionExtensions.GetProviderInvariantName(DbConnection connection)
System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Utilities.DbConnectionExtensions.GetProviderInfo(DbConnection connection, DbProviderManifest& providerManifest)
System.Data.Entity.DbModelBuilder.Build(DbConnection providerConnection)
System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyInternalContext.CreateModel(LazyInternalContext internalContext)
System.Data.Entity.Internal.RetryLazy`2.GetValue(TInput input)
System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyInternalContext.InitializeContext()
System.Data.Entity.Internal.InternalContext.GetEntitySetAndBaseTypeForType(Type entityType)
System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.Initialize()
System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.get_InternalContext()
System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.ActOnSet(Action action, EntityState newState, Object entity, String methodName)
System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.Add(Object entity)
System.Data.Entity.DbSet`1.Add(TEntity entity)
Apparently, somehow MySQL .NET provider was not registered on server although installation was done properly and all assemblies were present in GAC. Since on shared hosting we did not have access to machine.config by adding the same registration entry to the application web.config file resolved the issue:
<system.data>
<DbProviderFactories>
<add name="MySQL Data Provider" invariant="MySql.Data.MySqlClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for MySQL" type="MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory, MySql.Data, Version=6.4.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c5687fc88969c44d"/>
</DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>
Important: 1) Make sure to register the same version that is installed on the server 2) Provide precise fully qualified name in the type attribute. For example, adding extra space between MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory and MySql.Data will make this entry useless and will result in the same error
Shrinking Session State in asp.net
ASP.NET provides two default options for storing session state across a Web farm: a session-state provider that invokes an out-of-process session-state server, and a session-state provider that stores data in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Because both options involve storing state information outside a Web application's worker process, session state has to be serialized before it is sent to remote storage. Depending on how much information a developer saves in session state, the size of the serialized data can grow quite large.
ASP.NET 4 introduces a new compression option for both kinds of out-of-process session-state providers. When the compressionEnabled configuration option shown in the following example is set to true, ASP.NET will compress (and decompress) serialized session state by using the .NET Framework System.IO.Compression.GZipStream class.
sqlConnectionString="data source=dbserver;Initial Catalog=aspnetstate"
allowCustomSqlDatabase="true"
compressionEnabled="true"
/>
With the simple addition of the new attribute to the Web.config file, applications with spare CPU cycles on Web servers can realize substantial reductions in the size of serialized session-state data.
Explain the ways of authentication techniques in ASP.NET
Selection of an authentication provider is done through the entries in the web.config file for an application.
The modes of authentication are:
<authentication mode=”windows”>
<authentication mode=”passport”>
<authentication mode=”forms”>
Custom authentication needs installation of ISAPI filter in IIS. It compares incoming requests to a list of source IP addresses and a request is considered to be authenticated if it comes from an acceptable address.
