How do I make a beta access page like the one on superuser.com?

Question

I'm working with ASP.Net MVC and I would like to make a web site accesible via the internet, but only to a select few people right now. I want to do something basically exactly like the beta access page with password just like they did on stackoverflow, serverfault, and superuser.

I don't just want to check and redirect in the home controller, I want it to always go there no matter what url is used.

Anyone know how they do it?

Answer 1

I don't know enough about MVC in particular, but it would probably mean creating a base controller and overriding OnActionExecuting or OnAuthorization.

Answer 2

I'd create a custom filter that extended AuthorizeAttribute. That way you can put it on the controllers/actions you wanted, and remove it easily enough. Since it's essentially a decorator, you would be playing nice with the Open/Closed principle too.

If you override AuthorizeCore you can check session/cookie/whatever for the login and if that passes, run the base AuthorizeCore too.

Answer 3

The easy way is to put something in the users session. Run a check either on the master page or in an http handler to see if this session is correct or not. If not redirect to the password capture page. When the password is provided then set the session variable...wa la they are in.

If you want to remember them then also drop a cookie and add that to your check as well.