What is the purpose of using MembershipProvider? I am using a custom membership provider that inherits MembershipProvider, because our data access has to be done using an existing authentication system. Currently I am calling the ValidateUser() method of my custom membership provider, which calls the DAL to validate the credentials.
I'm confused about what the membership provider is doing for me. I could just as easily call the DAL either directly, or from any custom class I create if I want to wrap it in a business layer. If the ValidateUser returns true, then I call FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(). Is the MembershipProvider class required in some way for me to use FormsAuthentication? Or are they completely separate concepts; where I could use either one without the other?
Thanks.
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