Part 2: Save Personalization Settings

In this part I will show how to leverage the ASP.NET profile system to store and retrieve data tied to a particular user.  The beautiful thing about this is there is no explicit database configuration required.

First, let's go back to the ASP.NET server project and add the ProfileService.svc.  The easiest way to do this might be to copy the AuthenticationService.svc change the file name and then change the contents as show below.

<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Service=
    "System.Web.ApplicationServices.
       ProfileService" %>

Now, we need to enable the service via WCF configuration in web.config.  This looks just like the config for the prfofile service.  In the system.serviceModel\services section add a new node.

      <!-- this enables the WCF 
         ProfileService endpoint -->
      <service name=
         "System.Web.ApplicationServices.
            ProfileService"
               behaviorConfiguration=
                  "ProfileServiceTypeBehaviors">
        <endpoint contract=
              "System.Web.ApplicationServices.
                 ProfileService"
                  binding="basicHttpBinding" 
                     bindingConfiguration="userHttp"
                  bindingNamespace=
                     "http://asp.net/
                          ApplicationServices/v200"/>
      </service>

and in the system.serviceModel\behaviors\serviceBehaviors add a new node

        <behavior name=
            "ProfileServiceTypeBehaviors">
          <serviceMetadata 
              httpGetEnabled="true"/>
        </behavior>

Now we need to configure the profile system.  Again, in web.config add a section listing all the profile properties.  In the System.web section, add the following node.

    <profile>
      <properties>
        <add name="Color" type=
           "string" defaultValue="Red" />
      </properties>
    </profile>

Now we need to enable profile service to be accessed from the webservice. To do this, add the following node to the system.web.extensions\scripting\webservices section.

        <profileService enabled=
            "true" 
                        readAccessProperties=
                          "Color" 
                        writeAccessProperties=
                          "Color"/>

Now, let's go to the Silverlight client and add a reference to this service.  This is the same as we did authentication service. Add Service Reference, Discover and select the profileService.

Now, we need to add a little UI to the page.xaml in order to give us a way to view and edit the personalized setting.

            <StackPanel Orientation=
               "Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment=
                      "Center">
                <TextBlock>Favorite Color: 
                       </TextBlock>
                <TextBox x:Name=
                     "colorNameBox" 
                   Width="100" Height=
                     "25"></TextBox>
                <Button x:Name=
                      "submitButton" 
                    Width="50" Height="25" 
                        Content="submit" Click=
                          "submitButton_Click">
                </Button>
            </StackPanel>

Now, let's extend loginComplete to retrieve all the profile properties for the user that just logged in.   Again, we need to do that asynchronously so we don't block the browser.

void client_LoginCompleted
   (object sender, 
          LoginCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Error != null) statusText.Text =
           e.Error.ToString();
    else
    {
        statusText.Text = e.UserState + 
          " logged In result:" + e.Result;
        ProfileServiceClient client = 
           new ProfileServiceClient();
        client.GetAllProperties
            ForCurrentUserAsync(false);
        client.GetAllProperties
           ForCurrentUserCompleted += 
          new EventHandler
          <GetAllPropertiesFor
              CurrentUserCompletedEventArgs>
            (client_GetAllProperties
               ForCurrentUserCompleted);
    }
}

When we get the property values back, we just set the LayoutRoot to have that background.

void client_GetAllProperties
         ForCurrentUserCompleted
  (object sender, 
   GetAllPropertiesForCurrent
         UserCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Error == null)
    {
        colorNameBox.Text = 
            e.Result["Color"];
        ChangeBackgroundColor
          (e.Result["Color"]);
    }
}

private void ChangeBackgroundColor
   (string colorName)
{
    SolidColorBrush brush = 
       new SolidColorBrush();
    switch (colorName.ToLower())
    {
        case "black":
            brush.Color = Colors.Black;
            break;
        case "blue":
            brush.Color = Colors.Blue;
            break;
        case "brown":
            brush.Color = Colors.Brown;
            break;
        case "green":
            brush.Color = Colors.Green;
            break;
        case "orange":
            brush.Color = Colors.Orange;
            break;
        case "purple":
            brush.Color = Colors.Purple;
            break;
        case "yellow":
            brush.Color = Colors.Yellow;
            break;
        case "red":
            brush.Color = Colors.Red;
            break;
        case "white":
        default:
            brush.Color = Colors.White;
            break;
    }
    LayoutRoot.Background = brush;
}

Finally, when the submit button is pressed we need to set the value on the server.. for completeness, I show waiting until the result comes back from the server before setting the background locally.

private void submitButton_Click
   (object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    ProfileServiceClient client = 
     new ProfileServiceClient();
    Dictionary<string, object> properites = 
     new Dictionary<string,object>();
    properites.Add("Color",colorNameBox.Text);
    client.SetPropertiesForCurrentUserAsync
     (properites, false, properites);
    client.SetProperties
        ForCurrentUserCompleted += 
     new EventHandler
      <SetPropertiesForCurrent
           UserCompletedEventArgs>
      (client_SetPropertiesFor
           CurrentUserCompleted);
}

void client_SetPropertiesFor
         CurrentUserCompleted
    (object sender, 
    SetPropertiesForCurrentUser
         CompletedEventArgs e)
{
    Dictionary<string, object> 
      properites = e.UserState as 
          Dictionary<string, object>;
    ChangeBackgroundColor
          ((string)properites["Color"]);
}

The end result looks good!  Notice the employee and the manager can each have different values for color.

Next Page - Part 3. Enable Custom UI Based on a User's Role