An ASP.NET 4 Web Application Using the SqlTableProfileProvider – Doable or a Time Sink?

Update:  Imar Spaanjaars (MVP) came up with the solution and I did the documentation and packaging. Go for it! 

Have hundreds of ASP.NET developers been wasting dozens of hours each on something that can’t be made to work in ASP.NET? This is too weird! I’ve scoured the Web in vain looking for an example where someone has implemented the Microsoft SqlTableProfileProvider in an ASP.NET Web application. (The SqlTableProfileProvider  lets you store Profile data in a normal way rather than as difficult-to-manipulate blob data.)

There are plenty of implementations using the Web site model, including fellow MVP Chris Pel’s custom Profile provider video, but it really seems that nobody has made a custom Profile provider work in a Web application! Wouldn’t somebody have answered by now?

I threw out my own challenge/plea to fellow ASP.NET MVPs to debug my sample project so it works. One MVP colleague suggested I might be in for “resounding silence” around the issue. Resounding silence from MVPs? Nah.

If you, gentle reader, want to take a stab at debugging this issue, you can download my complete non-working web application project from my site (2+MB download). Provide the community a fix for my project and you’ll be a hero. I may even have a fabulous prize for a very lucky rock star.

A parallel – but slower way I might resolve this is to use a Microsoft Support Incident. The top guns can escalate it all the way to Scott Guthrie, if that’s what’s required to find an answer.

At any rate, stay tuned for some sort of resolution.

Ken