The first step you should take is to set up your database so that you can begin to work with the Membership API. This is a simple task thanks in large part to the GUI interface that ships with the .NET 2.0 framework. For those of you die-hard command-line junkies, there is no need to worry, just run aspnet_regsql.exe with the command line switch /?, and youre all set. For those who prefer the GUI interface, simply run aspnet_regsql.exe from a command prompt or the run window within Windows. By default this tools starts in wizard mode.
Figure 2: ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard
Figure 3: Select a Setup Option
Figure 4: Select the Server and Database
Figure 5: Confirm Your Settings
As you can gather, this takes very little effort on our part, and to drive home the point, here is a screenshot of a database after I ran this wizard.
Figure 6: Example Database Schema
At this point, your database has been prepared, and you are now ready to move on to the Visual Studio .NET 2005 IDE and create a registration page without writing a single line of code. One point I need to make is that you need to modify your web.config to point to the database that you have just provisioned.
Listing 1: Example SQL Server Connection String
<remove name="LocalSqlServer" />
<add name="LocalSqlServer"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
connectionString="server=servername;uid=userid;pwd=password;database=databasename"/>
