The Membership API came in .NET 2.0 and was a huge enhancement in building web applications with users, managing roles, permissions etc., The Membership API by default uses SQL Express and until Visual Studio 2008, it was available only through the ASP.NET Configuration manager screen (Website - ASP.NET Configuration) or (Project - ASP.NET Configuration) and for every application, one has to manually visit this place to start using the Security and other settings. Upon doing that the default SQL Express database aspnet.mdf is created to store all the user profiles. Starting Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0, the Default Website template includes the Membership API controls as a part of the page i.e. When you create a "File - New - ASP.NET Web...(read more) ...
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