ASP.NET Core 2.0 User Role Base Dynamic Menu Management Using Dependency Injection

• Download source code - 2.2 MB

Introduction

Before we start this article, kindly read my previous article:

• Getting Started With ASP.NET Core 2.0 Identity And Role Management

In my previous article, we have discussed in detail about how to use ASP.NET Core Identity in MVC Application for creating user roles and displaying the menu depending on user roles.

In this article, we will see in detail how to display role-based dynamic menu after a user logs in. For this, we will create a Menu Master table and insert a few records to display the menu and link the URL to the menu based on the logged in user's role.

Here, we will see how to:

• Create default admin and manager users
• Create MenuMaster table and insert a few sample records for Admin and Manager roles to display menus
• Redirect unauthenticated users to the login page
• Display menu dynamically based on logged in user

Background

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed all the prerequisites on your computer. If not, then download and install them all, one by one.

1. First, download and install Visual Studio 2017 from this link
2. SQL Server 2014 or above

Using the Code

Step 1 - Create a Database

This is in continuation of our previous article; as we have told you, we will be using a Common Database for both ASP.NET Identity tables and for our own new tables.

In our previous article, we have explained about creating user roles, and here for role based menu management, we need to make a relationship table between ASP.NET Roles table and our menu table.

Let us see in detail about how to create our new Menu Table which has a relationship with ASP.NET Identity AspNetRoles table.

Here, we can see the fields used for MenuMaster:

Firstly, we will create a database and set the connection string in appsettings.json file for DefaultConnection with our new database connection. We will be using this database for ASP.NET Core Identity table creation.

Create Database

Run the following script to create our database MenuMaster table and sample Menu insert rows script.

USE MASTER       
GO       
       
-- 1) Check for the Database Exists. If the database exists, then drop and create new DB       
IF EXISTS (SELECT [name] FROM sys.databases WHERE [name] = 'AttendanceDB' )       
DROP DATABASE AttendanceDB       
GO       
       
CREATE DATABASE AttendanceDB       
GO              

USE AttendanceDB    
GO    
  
IF EXISTS ( SELECT [name] FROM sys.tables WHERE [name] = 'MenuMaster' )    
DROP TABLE MenuMaster    
GO    
    
CREATE TABLE MenuMaster    
(    
   MenuIdentity int identity(1,1),    
   MenuID VARCHAR(30)  NOT NULL,    
   MenuName VARCHAR(30)  NOT NULL,  
   Parent_MenuID  VARCHAR(30)  NOT NULL,  
   User_Roll [varchar](256) NOT NULL,   
   MenuFileName VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,     
   MenuURL VARCHAR(500) NOT NULL,    
   USE_YN Char(1) DEFAULT 'Y',    
   CreatedDate datetime    
CONSTRAINT [PK_MenuMaster] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED          
(         
  [MenuIdentity] ASC   ,    
  [MenuID] ASC,    
  [MenuName] ASC      
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, _
 ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]         
) ON [PRIMARY]       
   
select * from MenuMaster  
-- Insert Admin User Details
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('AUSER','ADMIN Dashboard','*','ADMIN','INDEX','ADMINC','Y',getDate())  
 Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('AAbout','About Admin','*','ADMIN','INDEX','ADMINAC','Y',getDate())   
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('LStock','Live Stock','AUSER','ADMIN','INDEX','StockC','Y',getDate())     
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('Profile','User Details','AUSER','ADMIN','INDEX','MemberC','Y',getDate())   
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('MUSER','Manager Dashboard','*','ADMIN','INDEX','ManagerC','Y',getDate())  
 Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('MAbout','About Manager','*','ADMIN','INDEX','ManagerAC','Y',getDate())   
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('Accounts','Account Details','MUSER','ADMIN','INDEX','AccountC','Y',getDate())    
    Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,_
                           MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('Inventory','Inventory Details','MUSER','ADMIN','INDEX','InventoryC','Y',getDate())  

-- Insert Manager User Details 
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('MUSER','Manager Dashboard','*','Manager','INDEX','ManagerC','Y',getDate())  
 Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('MAbout','About Manager','*','Manager','INDEX','ManagerAC','Y',getDate())   
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('Accounts','Account Details','MUSER','Manager','INDEX','AccountC','Y',getDate())     
Insert into MenuMaster(MenuID ,MenuName,Parent_MenuID,User_Roll,MenuFileName,MenuURL,USE_YN,CreatedDate)
    Values('Inventory','Inventory Details','MUSER','Manager','INDEX','InventoryC','Y',getDate())   

select * from MenuMaster 

select * from AspnetUserRoles

Here, we can see the format we are using in our Menu Master table to insert our records for display menu based on user role.

• MenuID = 'AUSER' (We will give unique menu ID).
• MenuName = 'ADMIN Dashboard' (We will give menu display text),
• Parent_MenuID = '*’ (If this is main menu, then we will give here as “*”, else we will give the MenuID of previous records to display this record to show as submenu).
• User_Roll = 'ADMIN' (Here, we will give the User Role, if same menu needs to be used for multiple roles based users like Admin, Manager, Accountant, etc., then we will insert the same menu details with different user roles. In our sample, we have added the same menu details as 'Manager Dashboard' for both Admin and Manager User as both can view the menu and page.).
• MenuFileName = 'INDEX' (Here, we give our View name to be displayed when the menu is clicked).
• MenuURL = 'ADMINC' (Here, we give our Controller name to be displayed when the menu is clicked).
• USE_YN = 'Y' (This is an optional field as we can use this to display menu or not).
• CreatedDate = getDate() (This is also optional as to input the Create date).

In this demo application, we already have all the needed controllers and views to be displayed when user clicks on menu.

Step 2 - Create your ASP.NET Core

After installing our Visual Studio 2017, click start, then programs and select Visual Studio 2017 - Click Visual Studio 2017. Click New, then Project, select Web and then select ASP.NET Core Web Application. Enter your project name and click.

Select Web Application (Model-View-Controller) and click on the Change Authentication.

Select Individual User Accounts and click ok to create your project.

Updating appsettings.json

In appsettings.json file, we can find the DefaultConnection Connection string. Here, in connection string, change your SQL Server Name, UID and PWD to create and store all user details in one database.

"ConnectionStrings": {  
    "DefaultConnection": "Server= YOURSERVERNAME;Database=InventoryDB;
     user id= YOURSQLUSERID;password=YOURSQLPASSWORD;Trusted_Connection=True;
     MultipleActiveResultSets=true"  
  }, 

Step 3 - Add Identity Service in Startup.cs file

By default, in your ASP.NET Core application, the Identity Service will be added in Startup.cs file /ConfigureServices method. You can also additionally add the password strength while user registers and also set the default login page/logout page and also AccessDeniedPath by using the following code:

services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, IdentityRole>()
                .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
                .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

            //Password Strength Setting
            services.Configure<IdentityOptions>(options =>
            {
                // Password settings
                options.Password.RequireDigit = true;
                options.Password.RequiredLength = 8;
                options.Password.RequireNonAlphanumeric = false;
                options.Password.RequireUppercase = true;
                options.Password.RequireLowercase = false;
                options.Password.RequiredUniqueChars = 6;

                // Lockout settings
                options.Lockout.DefaultLockoutTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30);
                options.Lockout.MaxFailedAccessAttempts = 10;
                options.Lockout.AllowedForNewUsers = true;

                // User settings
                options.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true;
            });

            //Setting the Account Login page
            services.ConfigureApplicationCookie(options =>
            {
                // Cookie settings
                options.Cookie.HttpOnly = true;
                options.ExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30);
                options.LoginPath = "/Account/Login"; // If the LoginPath is not set here, 
                                                      // ASP.NET Core will default to /Account/Login
                options.LogoutPath = "/Account/Logout"; // If the LogoutPath is not set here, 
                                                        // ASP.NET Core will default to /Account/Logout
                options.AccessDeniedPath = "/Account/AccessDenied"; // If the AccessDeniedPath 
                                 // is not set here, ASP.NET Core will default to /Account/AccessDenied
                options.SlidingExpiration = true;
            });

Step 4: Register and Create Users

Now our ASP.NET Core web application is ready for user to register in our website and also user can login to our system after registration. We will be doing the Authorization by adding role to user in next steps. Build and run your application to register your first default Admin user.

Here, we will be registering two users as one for Admin and another user for Manager. We will be using these users for adding roles. We will create 2 users as syedshanumcain@gmail.com and afraz@gmail.com. Note: You can create users as per your need and change the user details in startup code for adding roles to users.

Refresh the Database

When we refresh our database, we can see all the Identity tables have been created.

Step 5: Create Role and Assign User for Role

We use the below method to create a new Role as “Admin” and “Manager”. We will assign the recently registered users as “Admin” and “Manager” to our website. Open Startup.cs file and add this method in your Startup.cs file.

private async Task CreateUserRoles(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            var RoleManager = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<RoleManager<IdentityRole>>();
            var UserManager = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<UserManager<ApplicationUser>>();

            IdentityResult roleResult;
            //Adding Addmin Role  
            var roleCheck = await RoleManager.RoleExistsAsync("Admin");
            if (!roleCheck)
            {
                //create the roles and seed them to the database  
                roleResult = await RoleManager.CreateAsync(new IdentityRole("Admin"));
            }

            roleCheck = await RoleManager.RoleExistsAsync("Manager");
            if (!roleCheck)
            {
                //create the roles and seed them to the database  
                roleResult = await RoleManager.CreateAsync(new IdentityRole("Manager"));
            }

            //Assign Admin role to the main User here we have given our 
            //newly loregistered login id for Admin management  
            ApplicationUser user = await UserManager.FindByEmailAsync("syedshanumcain@gmail.com");
            var User = new ApplicationUser();
            await UserManager.AddToRoleAsync(user, "Admin");

            user = await UserManager.FindByEmailAsync("Afraz@gmail.com");
            await UserManager.AddToRoleAsync(user, "Manager");
        } 

From Startup.cs file, we can find the Configure method. Call our CreateUserRoles method from this Configure method. When we build and run our application, we can see new Role as “Admin” and “Manager” will be created in ASPNetRole table.

Step 6: Create Admin/Manager Page and Set Authorization

Now we have a Admin/Manager user for our ASP.NET Core web application as a next step, let's create Controllers and views to display based on user login. In our previous example, we have already seen how to set Authorization for roles in each page, Using that, we will be creating all our needed Controllers and Views. In the attached sample demo application, you can find all the controllers and views which we have created and create your own as per your need.

Step 7: Working with Dependency Inject for Menu Display

Creating Model Class

First, we will start with creating a class in our Model folder. We give the class name as MenuMaster as same as our table name in our database. In MenuMaster class, we need to create properties same like our Table fields like below:

public class MenuMaster
    {
        [Key]
        public int MenuIdentity { get; set; }
        public string MenuID { get; set; }
        public string MenuName { get; set; }
        public string Parent_MenuID { get; set; }
        public string User_Roll { get; set; }
        public string MenuFileName { get; set; }
        public string MenuURL { get; set; }
        public string USE_YN { get; set; }
        public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }
    }

Creating Interface Class

Now, it’s time for us to create an interface with method named GetMenuMaster(), GetMenuMaster(String UserRole) and we will be implementing this interface in our Service to get all the Menu details from the table and also another method to get menu by user role. For creating the Interface, add a new class to your model folder and name the class as “IMenuMasterService”.

We will change the class to an interface as we are going to create an interface to implement in our service.

public interface IMenuMasterService
    {
        IEnumerable<MenuMaster> GetMenuMaster();
        IEnumerable<MenuMaster> GetMenuMaster(String UserRole);
     }

Creating Service

Now, let’s add a new class Services folder and name the class as “MenuMasterService”. In this class, we will be implementing our interface IMenuMasterService. We know that if we implement the interface, then we should declare the interface method in our class. In this service, we use the interface method and we return the list with Menu details and also return the Menu details by user role. We will be directly Injecting this on our View page.

public class MenuMasterService:IMenuMasterService
    {
        private readonly ApplicationDbContext _dbContext;

        public MenuMasterService(ApplicationDbContext dbContext)
        {
            _dbContext = dbContext;
        }

        public IEnumerable<MenuMaster> GetMenuMaster()
        { 
            return _dbContext.MenuMaster.AsEnumerable();

        } 

        public IEnumerable<MenuMaster> GetMenuMaster(string UserRole)
        {  
            var result = _dbContext.MenuMaster.Where(m => m.User_Roll == UserRole).ToList();  
            return result;
        }
    }

Register the Service

We need to register our created service to the container. Open the Startup.cs from your project to add the service to the container.

In the Startup.cs class, find the method named as ConfigureServices and add your service “MenuMasterService” like below:

services.AddTransient<MenuMasterService, MenuMasterService>();

Inject the Service in the _Layout.cshtml Page

Now, it’s much simpler and easier as we can directly Inject the service in our View page and bind all the results to our view page. For injecting the Service in our View, here we will be using our existing _Layout.cshtml page. Since we are going to display the menu at the top of our website and use in all our pages, here we have used the _Layout.cshtml page to bind the menu results as menu based on user logged in.

Here, first we check the user is Authenticated to our website then if the user is logged in, then we get the role details of the logged in user and bind the menu based on the user roles. Here, we are binding 2 levels of menu as Main Menu and Submenu. In our table result, we check for all the Parent_MenuID=” *” as we will be displaying the main menu with the parent_MenuID as “*” and in next inner loop, we display the submenu appropriate to the main menu.

<div class="navbar-collapse collapse">
 <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
   <li><a asp-area="" asp-controller="Home" asp-action="Index">Home</a></li>
 @if (User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
        {
            var UserRoles = "";
            if (@User.IsInRole("Admin"))
            {
                UserRoles = "Admin";
            }
            else
            {
                UserRoles = "Manager";
            }

                @if (menus.GetMenuMaster(@UserRoles).Any())
                {
                @if (menus.GetMenuMaster(@UserRoles).Any())
                {
                @foreach (var menuNames in menus.GetMenuMaster(@UserRoles).Where
                            (n => n.Parent_MenuID == "*"))
                {
                        <li>
                            <a asp-area="" asp-controller=@menuNames.MenuURL 

                               asp-action=@menuNames.MenuFileName>@menuNames.MenuName</a>
                            <ul class="sub-menu">
                                @foreach (var subMenu in menus.GetMenuMaster(@UserRoles).Where
                                         (n => n.Parent_MenuID == @menuNames.MenuID))
                                  {
                                    <li>
                                        <a asp-area="" asp-controller=@subMenu.MenuURL 

                                         asp-action=@subMenu.MenuFileName>@subMenu.MenuName</a>
                                    </li>
                                   }
                            </ul>
                            </li>
                }
                }
                }
            }
  </ul>

Points of Interest

Firstly, create a sample AttendanceDB database in your SQL Server and run the script to create MenuMaster table and insert sample records. In the appsettings.json file, change the DefaultConnection connection string with your SQL Server Connections. In Startup.cs file, add all the code as we discussed in this article. This is a simple demo application and we have fixed with Admin and Manager roles, you can change as per your requirement and also the CSS design for menu and sub menu is not good for Mobile compatibility, you can add your own bootstrap design to implement your menu style. Hope you all like this article and soon we will see another article with more live examples.

History

• ASPNETCORERoleManagement - 2018-04-03