Storing and Retrieving User Settings

In this tutorial you will learn how to store user's preferred color in the Secure Access database and how to retrieve it in your application.

Open your project with Secure Access authentication implemented. Add a new page called UserSettings.aspx.

Add following lines at the beginning of the page code-behind, so that you can use Secure Access libraries in this page.

[Visual Basic]

Imports PortSight.SecureAccess.ARDataServices
Imports PortSight.SecureAccess.ARObjects


[C#]

using PortSight.SecureAccess.ARDataServices;
using PortSight.SecureAccess.ARObjects;

Put a new button called "Button1" and a new textbox called "Label1". Change the text of the "Label1" control to "Enter your preferred color:". Add a new label named "Label2" and change its text to "This is your preferred color.".

Add following code to the Page_Load method:

[Visual Basic]

If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
    'get user's preferred color
    Dim prefColor As String
    Dim arcn As New ARConnection()
    arcn.ConnectToCatalog()
    prefColor = arcn.GetUserByLogin(User.Identity.Name).GetPropertyValue("preferred_color")
    If prefColor Is Nothing Then
        prefColor = ""
    End If
    Label2.Attributes.Add("style", "color:" & prefColor)
    txtPreferredColor.Text = prefColor
    arcn.Close()
End If


[C#]

if (! Page.IsPostBack)
{
	// get user's preferred color
	String prefColor;
	ARConnection arcn = new ARConnection();
	arcn.ConnectToCatalog();
	prefColor = arcn.GetUserByLogin(User.Identity.Name).GetPropertyValue("preferred_color");
	if (prefColor == null)
	{
		prefColor = "";
	}
	Label2.Attributes.Add("style", "color:" + prefColor);
	txtPreferredColor.Text = prefColor;
	arcn.Close();
}

What you did:

You added code that retrieves preferred color from the user's settings, fills the text box and changes color of the main label.

Double-click the "Button1" button and you will see the event handler code for this button. Add following lines to this method:

[Visual Basic]

'store preferred user color
Dim arcn As New ARConnection()
arcn.ConnectToCatalog()
arcn.GetUserByLogin(User.Identity.Name).SetPropertyValue("preferred_color", txtPreferredColor.Text)
Label2.Attributes.Add("style", "color:" & txtPreferredColor.Text)
arcn.Close()


[C#]

//store preferred user color
ARConnection arcn = new ARConnection();
arcn.ConnectToCatalog();
arcn.GetUserByLogin(User.Identity.Name).SetPropertyValue("preferred_color", txtPreferredColor.Text);
Label2.Attributes.Add("style", "color:" + txtPreferredColor.Text);
arcn.Close();

What you did:

You added code that stores preferred color in the user's settings.

Compile and run your application. Log on and navigate to the UserSettings.aspx page. Click on the button. Try to enter new color (you can use the same names you use in HTML) and store it in your settings. Close the browser, open a new browser window and navigate to this page. You should see the label again in the color you chosen.