ASP.NET Web Forms Custom Membership provider error

Question

In my ASP.NET Web Forms app, I'm trying to create my own SQLMembershipProvider class, to override the ConnectionString at runtime. But I am getting a configuration error: "The type 'ExtendRegv1.MyMembershipProvider' is ambiguous"

I have created the following class in the App_code folder...

My Custom Membership Provider Class

namespace ExtendRegv1
{
    public class MyMembershipProvider :SqlMembershipProvider
    {
        public override void Initialize(string name, System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection config)
        {
            base.Initialize(name, config);

            string connectionString = "Data Source=BSHEEHAN-PC\\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ExReg_Default;Integrated Security=True";

            FieldInfo connectionStringField = GetType().BaseType.GetField("_sqlConnectionString", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        connectionStringField.SetValue(this, connectionString);  

        }
    }
}

Web config:

<membership>
    <providers>
        <clear />
              <add name="MyMembershipProvider" type="ExtendRegv1.MyMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="true" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="3" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" />
    </providers>
</membership>

Thanks, Ben

Answer 1

I've just tried this out in a test project and it works fine for me. So couple of thoughts

1. When I put the class into App_Code I had to right click the file and in properties change the build action from Content to Compile - is was in VS 2010. This is unlikely to be your issue.

2. More likely - have you got two copies of MyMembershipProvider - i.e. is it also in a dll that is included in the build. It could even be someone elses demo code. I would comment out your app_code class and see if that builds. It won't fix it - just give you a good indication of what is wrong. I would be tempted to put the class in a dll anyway - but that just me (IMHO and all that)

Like I say - in classic developer speak - works for me on my build (it's like a motto almost!)