Custom MembershipProvider: No parameterless constructor defined for this object

Question

I have a custom MembershipProvider class that inherits from MembershipProvider that takes two parameters:

public class CustomMembershipProvider : MembershipProvider
{
    private readonly ISecurityRepository _securityRepository;
    private readonly IUserRepository _userRepository;

    public CustomMembershipProvider(ISecurityRepository securityRepository, IUserRepository userRepository)
    {
        ...
    }

    public override MembershipUser GetUser(string username, bool userIsOnline)
    {
        ...
    }

    ... etc
}

The config file for this looks similar to this:

<membership defaultProvider="CustomMembershipProvider">
  <providers>
    <clear />
    <add name="CustomMembershipProvider" type="Library.Membership.CustomMembershipProvider" />
  </providers>
</membership>

This works fine mostly throughout my web application for logging in and logging out. I am using Unity for DI and have the necessary classes setup in my Boostrapper.cs class.

However I recently ran into an issue when I wanted to create a custom User class and called the Membership.GetUser method. I get the following exception when I do:

{"No parameterless constructor defined for this object. (C:\\*app path*\\web.config line 43)"}

Line 43 in my config file points to the custom membership provider that I posted above. I think that elsewhere the app is using Unity to resolve those parameters but when using the Membership class it doesn't.

Is there any way I can tell the application how to resolve those dependencies or if not is there a way of adding those dependencies to my membership provider without using the concrete implementation?

EDIT 1:

Here is the custom User class:

public class User : MembershipUser
{
    public int UserId { get; set; }
    public string Username { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public DateTime LastLoggedOnDate { get; set; }
    ...         
}

EDIT 2:

In my custom membership provider class this is what the GetUser method looks like:

public override MembershipUser GetUser(string username, bool userIsOnline)
{
    return _userRepository.GetUser(username);
}

You haven't posted your custom User Class code? This is where the error is right? — codingbadger
No, the error is that it can't resolve the custom membership provider class. The User class is a very simple user template with properties (name, email, userid etc) — Serberuss
What code is in your GetUser method? This is where the error is being thrown correct? You state that in your question called the Membership.GetUser method. I get the following exception when I do: — codingbadger
It never actually gets to that code due to the fact it can't resolve the class. But I will update the post with that code in — Serberuss
This is painful.. I did it this week. I ended up passing the DI container into the custom MembershipProvider. Saved so much hassle.. but its dirty. — Simon Whitehead

lopezbertoni lopezbertoni · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-03T12:29:35

The problem is that you can't inject into the Membership provider via constructor. Refer to this question

I implemented a Custom Membership Provider using Ninject and I used the ServiceLocator to get the instance of the service.

public class AccountMembershipProvider : MembershipProvider
{
    private readonly IUsers _users;

    public AccountMembershipProvider()
    {
        _users = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IUsers>();
    }

    public override bool ValidateUser(string username, string password)
    {
        return _users.IsValidLogin(username, password);
    }
...
}

In your case, you need to get the IUserRepository and ISecurityRepository.

When you wire your Interfaces/services

    private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
    {
        kernel.Bind<IUsers>().To<UsersService>();
        kernel.Bind<IRoles>().To<RolesService>();

        kernel.Bind<MembershipProvider>().To<AccountMembershipProvider>().InRequestScope();
        kernel.Bind<RoleProvider>().To<AccountRoleProvider>().InRequestScope();

    }

You can check a complete example of it working (using Ninject but you can adapt it to Unity) here: https://github.com/lopezbertoni/SampleApp

Hope this helps,

Custom MembershipProvider: No parameterless constructor defined for this object

3 Answers