This sample illustrates a personalized portal home page application. The application allows users to customize a home page to show various modules of their choosing, such as a site directory or favorite links list. Each module is implemented as a user control, which is dynamically added to the home page if the user has chosen to include it. The custom personalization settings are maintained in a SQL database and are retrieved using a personalization HTTP module component (which works much as the session state and application state HTTP modules do). Every page in the application inherits from a common code-behind base Page class, which uses the personalization component to expose a special dictionary called UserState. This UserState dictionary provides the application's pages with access to the per-user customization settings (as key/value string pairs). In addition to storing the user's module selections, the UserState dictionary stores other customization parameters such as color schemes. Individual modules can use the UserState dictionary to store their own customization settings as well.
The portal application employs the FormsAuthenticationModule for user authentication. When a user first requests the home page, the settings for an anonymous user are displayed. If the user tries to access a portion of the portal that is restricted to authenticated users (such as the module customization page), the FormsAuthenticationModule redirects the user to a login page to enter credentials. A user who has not logged in before can use a registration form to create a new user account and password. On subsequent visits to the portal home page, a user can simply log in using these account credentials (which are then verified against a SQL database).
To get started exploring the portal application, follow the steps described above to create a user account. Once your account is created you can browse and customize the entire portal.
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