WIF 4.5 Claim Value - Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Question

I'm using the new WIF 4.5 SDK, but i have the same annoying exception that with LINQ is resolved with .FirstorDefault()

 var claimEmail = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.FindFirst(ClaimTypes.Email).Value;

The problem here is that Windows Live ID have no email value in the claim, so if an user log in with a live ID i have a NullReferenceException - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. I also tried;

var claimEmail = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.FindFirst(ClaimTypes.Email).Value.FirstorDefault();

without success

How can i return NULL or "" if ther's no email in the claim?

Thanks

Answer 1

There isn't a FirstOrDefault shortcut in the ClaimsPrincipal class, but you can always just use LINQ to iterate the list of claims to do the same thing:

var claimEmail = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.Claims.Where(c => c.Type == ClaimTypes.Email).FirstOrDefault();

Or you can just put in a check to make sure the Claim isn't NULL:

var claimEmail = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.FindFirst(ClaimTypes.Email);
var email = (claimEmail == null ? string.Empty : claimEmail.Value);

Hopefully this helps.