AddToRole() returns “User name can only contain letters or digits” only when users email address contains a dash

Question

I'm using Asp.Net Identity 2.0, configured so that the users' email address is also the username, so in IdentityConfig I have set AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserNames = false in the ApplicationUserManager constructor:

public class ApplicationUserManager : UserManager<ApplicationUser>
{
    public ApplicationUserManager(IUserStore<ApplicationUser> store)
        : base(store)
    {
    }

    public static ApplicationUserManager Create(IdentityFactoryOptions<ApplicationUserManager> options, IOwinContext context)
    {
        var manager = new ApplicationUserManager(new UserStore<ApplicationUser>(context.Get<ApplicationDbContext>()));
        // Configure validation logic for usernames
        manager.UserValidator = new UserValidator<ApplicationUser>(manager)
        {
            AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserNames = false,
            RequireUniqueEmail = true
        };

        // ... other options removed
    }
}

I'm using this code in a page for staff to search for a user and add a role to the user's account when checking a checkbox in a GridView of all available roles:

//protected UserManager<ApplicationUser> um = new UserManager<ApplicationUser>(new UserStore<ApplicationUser>(new ApplicationDbContext()));

//changed this to call the ApplicationUserManager instead of UserManager to make sure AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserName = false is called, but still no luck
protected ApplicationUserManager um = new ApplicationUserManager(new UserStore<ApplicationUser>(new ApplicationDbContext()));

protected void cbRole_CheckChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string UserName = lblUsername.Text;
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(UserName))
    {
        CheckBox cb = (CheckBox)sender;
        GridViewRow row = (GridViewRow)cb.NamingContainer;
        string Role = row.Cells[1].Text;

        if (cb.Checked)
        {
            var user = um.FindByName(UserName);
            var UserResult = um.AddToRole(user.Id, Role);

            if (UserResult.Succeeded)
            {
               lblRoles.Text = "The <b>" + Role + "</b> role has been added for " + UserName;
            }
            else
            {
                foreach (var error in UserResult.Errors)
                        lblRoles.Text += error; //<-- RETURNS ERROR: "User name <email address> is invalid, can only contain letters or digits." If <email address> contains a dash (-).
            }
        }
        else
        {
            um.RemoveFromRole(hfAspUserID.Value, Role);
            lblRoles.Text = "The <b>" + Role + "</b> role has been removed for " + UserName;
        }
    }
}

It usually works perfectly. However, whenever a user has a dash in their username, for example "users.name@domain-name.com," the AddToRole() function returns the error User name users.name@domain-name.com is invalid, can only contain letters or digits.

All accounts are local accounts, it's NOT configured to use external logins such as facebook or Google.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated, as my extensive Google search for this problem has come up with nothing other than tutorials on how to implement email addresses as usernames, which I have already done.

Answer 1

According to your code AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserNames = false only calling when you calling the method 'Create' of ApplicationUserManager. So that you make sure that method calls before accessing um.AddToRole() method.

Get userManager from owin context like below then call your menthods.

var userManager = Context.GetOwinContext().GetUserManager<ApplicationUserManager>();

userManager.AddToRole() etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Please study and follow this code, it works:

 public void AddUserToGroup(string userId, int groupId)
    {
        Group group = _db.Groups.Find(groupId);
        User user = _db.Users.Find(userId);

        var userGroup = new UserGroup
        {
            Group = group,
            GroupId = group.Id,
            User = user,
            UserId = user.Id
        };

        #region turning off Alphanumeric since we are using email in username
        var db = new DBModel();
        DBModel context = new DBModel();
        var userStore = new UserStore<User>(context);
        var userManager = new UserManager<User>(userStore);
        userManager.UserValidator = new UserValidator<User>(userManager)
        {
            AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserNames = false
        };
        #endregion
        foreach (RoleGroup role in group.Roles)
        {
            var test = userManager.AddToRole(userId, role.Role.Name);
        }
        user.Groups.Add(userGroup);
        _db.SaveChanges();
    }

Answer 3

I was having the same issue - however I didn't have access to Context but you can get it through the HTTP request as well, so hopefully this helps someone else with the same issue. The code I used is as follows:

userManager = OwinContextExtensions.GetUserManager<ApplicationUserManager>(this.HttpContext.GetOwinContext());