Examining ASP.NET's Membership, Roles, and Profile - Part 10

Author: aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com | Published: 17th Apr 2008 | Visited: 71 times | Add Comment
Filed in: SQL Server

The Membership system automatically tracks the last date and time each user's account has been accessed. With the SqlMembershipProvider, this information is stored in the aspnet_Users database table in a datetime column named LastActivityDate. This column is automatically updated to the current UTC date and time whenever a user logs into the site, whenever their user account information is updated, and whenever their user account information is retrieved. In addition to tracking each user's last activity date and time, the Membership system includes a method named GetNumberOfUsersOnline. This method returns the number of users whose last activity date and time is within a specified window; by default, this method returns the number of users whose aspnet_Users.LastActivityDate value falls within the last 15 minutes. This article, the tenth installment of a multipart article series on ASP.NET's Membership, Roles, and Profile systems, examines the GetNumberOfUsersOnline method and see how to extend the Membership system to include additional user activity information. Specifically, we will add a new table to the database used by the SqlMembershipProvider that associates a description of each user's current action. We will then update our ASP.NET pages to update the records in this table to include a description of the user's current action. For example, when visiting the home page we may use the description, "Viewing the home page." Finally, we will create a web page that displays the list of currently logged on users and their last known action. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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