Reset Password View

Depending on your Asp.Net Membership Provider Settings, you may be able to use the Reset Password Panel to:

1. Change a member's password
2. Change the passwordFormat for a member
3. Change the Question And Answer for a member

The reset function completely replaces a member's credentials with those you specify and, since it works with Hashed passwords, it is often the only way to help a customer who has failed all other attempts to recover his/her password.

While the Reset Password panel is quite powerful, it is still limited by the configuration options of the underlying SqlMembershipProvider. As outlined in the article, Asp.Net Membership Provider Password Administration, the following configuration options must be set in order to call the series of provider methods required to reset the members' password:

1. The members' password must be stored in a Clear text format

or...

1. The MembershipProvider.RequiresQuestionAndAnswer property must be set to false.
2. The MembershipProvider.EnablePasswordReset property must be set to true.
3. If attempting to change a members' passwordFormat to Encrypted, a <machineKey> section must be defined in web.config.

Each of these elements is described in the topic Asp.Net Membership Provider Settings, which also describes how to create appropriate entries in your application's web.config file.

Anticipating Exceptions

Since the Membership Manager Control depends on the configuration of your Membership Provider, certain exceptions may be anticipated if you have not properly configured the Asp.Net SqlMembershipProvider.

The following configuration topics explain the various messages you might receive while using the Reset Password Panel:

Index was outside the bounds of the array 
You must specify a non-autogenerated machine key..
Unable to reset password unless EnablePasswordReset..
Unable to reset password unless RequiresQuestionAndAnswer..

Customizing the view (design time)

The Heading Text and passwordFormat prompt may be modified by changing the ResetPasswordTitle and ResetPasswordFormatPrompt properties in the Visual Studio 2005 Properties pane. Similarly, the Confirmation text box prompt and the text that links to the advanced (Reset Password) view may be set with the ConfirmPasswordPrompt and ResetPasswordLinkText properties.

While simple label and style changes might be adequate for your needs, you may also wish to take advantage of the Convert to Template option which exposes the view's constituent web controls for formatting and editing.




As illustrated, the Tasks panel includes an option to select the desired view then Convert to Template changes it to a templated panel.

Just like the Asp.Net Login Controls, templated views allow you to change the layout and content of the panel. You actually have a lot of flexibility when doing so, however you must not delete or change the name of the active controls such as the text box, the OK button or the Cancel Button.

The following is an example of a panel that has been converted to a template then customized with additional controls:




As you can see, the modified control may contain additional controls and varied formatting. 


If you want to discard your templated changes, just bring up the tasks menu and click the Reset option as illustrated below. Caution: Reset will immediately discard any changes you have made to your custom view template. Of course, nothing is permanent until you save the file.