OWIN authentication

Introduction

This section provides an introduction to the OWIN authentication model in EPiServer. OWIN is a standardised interface between web servers and web applications, meant as a way to break up the tight coupling between ASP.NET and IIS. The hosting environment takes a Startup function that is called to set up everything. That function registers a set of middleware with the application. For each request, the application calls each of the the middleware components with the head pointer of a linked list to an existing set of handlers. Each middleware can add one or more handlers to the request handling pipeline by returning a reference to the handler that will be the new head of the list. Each handler is responsible for remembering and invoking the next handler in the list.

Terminology

OWIN - An abstraction between Web servers and framework components.
Middleware - A function called in the owin pipeline.

To configure OWIN authentication you must set the authentication type in the system.web section of the web.config like bleow.

XML

<authentication mode="None"></authentication>

To configure OWIN authentication you must also create a Startup file in your project that will handle the configuration of the different authentication middleware.

using System;
using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity;
using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.Owin;
using Microsoft.Owin;
using Microsoft.Owin.Security.Cookies;
using Microsoft.Owin.Security.Google;
using Owin;
using WebApplication1.Models;

namespace WebApplication1
{
    public partial class Startup
    {
        // For more information on configuring authentication, please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=301864
        public void ConfigureAuth(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            // Configure the db context, user manager and signin manager to use a single instance per request
            app.CreatePerOwinContext(ApplicationDbContext.Create);
            app.CreatePerOwinContext<ApplicationUserManager>(ApplicationUserManager.Create);
            app.CreatePerOwinContext<ApplicationSignInManager>(ApplicationSignInManager.Create);

            // Enable the application to use a cookie to store information for the signed in user
            // and to use a cookie to temporarily store information about a user logging in with a third party login provider
            // Configure the sign in cookie
            app.UseCookieAuthentication(new CookieAuthenticationOptions
            {
                AuthenticationType = DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ApplicationCookie,
                LoginPath = new PathString("/Account/Login"),
                Provider = new CookieAuthenticationProvider
                {
                    // Enables the application to validate the security stamp when the user logs in.
                    // This is a security feature which is used when you change a password or add an external login to your account.  
                    OnValidateIdentity = SecurityStampValidator.OnValidateIdentity<ApplicationUserManager, ApplicationUser>(
                        validateInterval: TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30),
                        regenerateIdentity: (manager, user) => user.GenerateUserIdentityAsync(manager))
                }
            });            
            app.UseExternalSignInCookie(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalCookie);

            // Enables the application to temporarily store user information when they are verifying the second factor in the two-factor authentication process.
            app.UseTwoFactorSignInCookie(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.TwoFactorCookie, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

            // Enables the application to remember the second login verification factor such as phone or email.
            // Once you check this option, your second step of verification during the login process will be remembered on the device where you logged in from.
            // This is similar to the RememberMe option when you log in.
            app.UseTwoFactorRememberBrowserCookie(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.TwoFactorRememberBrowserCookie);

            // Uncomment the following lines to enable logging in with third party login providers
            //app.UseMicrosoftAccountAuthentication(
            //    clientId: "",
            //    clientSecret: "");

            //app.UseTwitterAuthentication(
            //   consumerKey: "",
            //   consumerSecret: "");

            //app.UseFacebookAuthentication(
            //   appId: "",
            //   appSecret: "");

            //app.UseGoogleAuthentication(new GoogleOAuth2AuthenticationOptions()
            //{
            //    ClientId = "",
            //    ClientSecret = ""
            //});
        }
    }
}

OWIN authentication

Introduction

Terminology

See also