User Profiles are configured to be stored in a Microsoft SQL
Server 2005 Express database that is placed in the App_Code folder of an
ASP.NET 2.0 Web application. The content of this folder is dynamically compiled
at runtime.
User Profiles can be configured to communicate with another
database store. User Profiles use the provider model; then it is easy to unplug
the default provider and replace it with a custom provider.
ASP.NET 2.0 Beta 2 ships with one Profile provider which is
the SqlProfileProvider. One can even create ones own custom Profile provider
by inheriting from the ProfileProvider class. Sometimes, using an Oracle
database for your Web application might be needed. What we need to do to make
user Profiles work with an Oracle database is to create that custom Profile
provider.
In this section, I will provide a step-by-step demonstration
on how to configure the default provider which is the SqlProfileProvider to
work with the Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
ASP.NET 2.0 framework ships with a utility used to configure
an SQL Server 2000 database to store personalization information and mainly
Profile information. This utility is named aspnet_regsql and is located in the
following location:
{Drive Letter}:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\[.Net
Framework]\
When this utility is run the first window that appears is
shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2 - ASP.NET 2.0 SQL Server Setup Wizard
Press Next > and you will see Figure 3 below.
Figure 3. Configure or Remove a SQL Server for
Application Services
Press Next > and you will see Figure 4 below.
Figure 4 - Specify Connection Information
A database named aspnetdb is chosen that was created
previously using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager. In this section,
we choose the computer name (server name), type of connection whether Windows
authentication or SQL Server authentication, and finally the database instance
where the tables representing the user Profile are to be stored. Hit Next
> and continue the next simple steps.
By doing this process, the tables used by the Profile object
to store users Profile features are saved on the SQL Server.
