Configuring Audit.NET and getting user details from ASP.NET CORE app.

[tessierp]

Hi,

Consider the following code

        Instance._assemblyName = assemblyFullName;

        Configuration.Setup()
            .UseEntityFramework(_ => _
                .AuditTypeMapper(t => typeof(AuditLog))
                .AuditEntityAction<AuditLog>((ev, entry, entity) =>
                {
                    var assembly = Assembly.Load(Instance._assemblyName);
                    var assemblyName = assembly.GetName();

                    entity.AuditId = Guid.NewGuid();
                    entity.Timestamp = DateTimeUtilities.GetUnixTimeSeconds(DateTime.UtcNow);
                    entity.TableName = entry.EntityType.Name;
                    entity.OperationData = entry.ToJson();
                    entity.Operation = entry.Action;
                    entity.OperationPerformedBy = getUserName();
                    entity.NameOfAssembly = assemblyName.Name;
                    entity.VersionOfAssembly = assemblyName.Version.ToString();
                })
            .IgnoreMatchedProperties(true));`

`
Where getUserName is a delegate function that gets the current username. In an ASP.NET CORE application, how would you go about getting the username or details? Lets say you want to get the access_token to extract what you need. The only way to do that is by accessing the HttpContext. However, the context is not accessible from the Startup and I tried to use IHttpContextAccessor which does not work. I have seen some using the Thread's Principal to store the name which I guess would work but this is not ideal as I would be storing an access_token in the Name property of Identity.

Any ideas how to best solve this?

[thepirat000]

You actually can access the httpcontext from the delegate. Take a look a this for example.

Why it didn't work in your case?

[tessierp]

I did some more testing and I am able to get a HttpContextAccessor in a controller that is valid but not during the applications Configuration state in Startup. I am not sure how you were able to achieve that.

I payed a closer attention at the code snapshot your provided above, you are executing your code in a Middleware! Now it makes sense to me why you get a valid HttpContextAccessor which is very different from the code here #299 which is done in the Startup which wouldn't have any HttpContext ready at that point. I am not sure if others are doing it this way and if they are not sure how they got it to work.

So you build your own custom Middleware for that part I presume?

[tessierp]

Middleware was the solution to get IHttpContextAccessor. Again beats me how you manage to get a valid HttpContext from the Startup. Problem solved.

[thepirat000]

Glad it's solved but I don't get what you say about the middleware. It should not be the problem. Actually is not running at the startup. At the startup there is no httpcontext. The code is on the startup, but the custom action delegate is called on the context of the audit. So if you are calling DbContext.SaveChanges from an user action, the httpcontext should be accessible on the custom action delegate.

Here is the sample project: issuenet5.zip

[tessierp]

Yeah I know that which was strange to see in the example of the other post. Basically what I do is, where there is a create, update or delete, I call a Custom Action before, and setup is done once somewhere.

[CannyGent]

Hi - just to say I configured a Blazor app in latest .NET and successfully used the HttpContextAccessor method