C# MVC: User Password Reset Controller: Issues with email addresses as usernames

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I have written the code below for resetting users passwords (am using the aspnet membership api) in an C# MVC application, and tested successfully on a sample tutorial application (MVC Music Store). Skip to the end if you wish to read problem description first.

InactiveUsers View (Partial View)

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<System.Web.Security.MembershipUserCollection>" %>

<table class="normal" style="width: 100%; background-color: White;">
       <tr>
            <th>User Name</th>
            <th>Last Activity date</th>
            <th>Locked Out</th>
       </tr>
       <%foreach (MembershipUser user in Model){ %>


       <tr>
           <td><%: Html.RouteLink(user.UserName, "AdminPassword", new { username = user.UserName }) %></td>
           <td><%: user.LastActivityDate %></td>
           <td><%: user.IsLockedOut %></td>
       </tr>


       <% }%>
    </table>

InactiveUsers Controller

public ActionResult InactiveUsers()
    {
        var users = Membership.GetAllUsers();

        return View(users);

    }

changeUserPassword GET and POST Controllers

 public ActionResult changeUserPassword(string username)
        {
            ViewData["username"] = username;

            return View();
        }


        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult changeUserPassword(ChangePasswordModel model, FormCollection values)
        {
            string username = values["username"];
            string password = values["password"];
            string confirmPassword = values["confirmPassword"];

            MembershipUser mu = Membership.GetUser(username);

            if (password == confirmPassword)
            {
                if (mu.ChangePassword(mu.ResetPassword(), password))
                {
                    return RedirectToAction("Index", "ControlPanel");
                }
                else
                {
                    ModelState.AddModelError("", "The current password does not meet requirements");
                }
            }

            return View();
        }

I also modified the Global.asax.cs file to cater for my route in the InactiveUsers partial:

        // Added in 10/01/11

        RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
            "AdminPassword", // routename
            "ControlPanel/changeUserPassword/{username}",
            new { controller = "ControlPanel", action = "changeUserPassword", username = UrlParameter.Optional }
            );

        // END

Now, when I tested on the MVC Music Store, all of my usernames were just words, e.g. Administrator, User, etc. However now I am applying this code to a situation in my workplace and it's not working out quite as planned. The usernames used in my workplace are actually email addresses and I think this is what is causing the problem.

When I click on the RouteLink in the partial InactiveUsers view, it should bring me to the reset password page with a url that looks like this:

http://localhost:83/ControlPanel/changeUserPassword/[email protected], HOWEVER,

what happens when I click on the RouteLink is an error is thrown to say that the view changeUserPassword cannot be found, and the URL looks like this:

http://localhost:83/ControlPanel/changeUserPassword/example1%40gmail.com - See how the '@' symbol gets messed up?

I've also debugged through the code, and in my GET changeUserPassword, the username is populating correctly: [email protected], so I'm thinking it's just the URL that's messing it up?

If I type in the URL manually, the changeUserPassword view displays, however the password reset function does not work. An 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' exception is thrown at the if (mu.ChangePassword(mu.ResetPassword(), password)) line.

I think if I could solve the first issue (URL '@' symbol problem) it might help me along with my second issue.

Any help would be appreciated :)

Stack Trace - as requested

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[InvalidOperationException: The view 'changeUserPassword' or its master was not found. The following locations were searched:
~/Views/ControlPanel/changeUserPassword.aspx
~/Views/ControlPanel/changeUserPassword.ascx
~/Views/Shared/changeUserPassword.aspx
~/Views/Shared/changeUserPassword.ascx]
   System.Web.Mvc.ViewResult.FindView(ControllerContext context) +495
   System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +208
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +39
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass14.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__11() +60
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation) +391
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass16.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__13() +61
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +285
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName) +830
   System.Web.Mvc.Controller.ExecuteCore() +136
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +111
   System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.System.Web.Mvc.IController.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +39
   System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass8.<BeginProcessRequest>b__4() +65
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass1.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__0() +44
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass8`1.<BeginSynchronous>b__7(IAsyncResult _) +42
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +141
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.End(IAsyncResult asyncResult, Object tag) +54
   System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.End(IAsyncResult asyncResult, Object tag) +40
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +52
   System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) +38
   System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +8841105
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +184
2

There are 2 best solutions below

0
On

Better to use System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlDecode(url1). whether the Url is encoded or not it returns a raw url like "http://localhost:83/ControlPanel/changeUserPassword/[email protected]" and you can get userName from it.

string userName = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlDecode(userName);
RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
            "AdminPassword", // routename 
            "ControlPanel/changeUserPassword/" + userName,
            new { controller = "ControlPanel", action = "changeUserPassword", username = UrlParameter.Optional }
            ); 
0
On

Do you realize that %40 is the URL encoded version of the @-symbol? The data in your URL is not messed up, it's URL encoded. This is needed because your data contains a symbol that has a meaning in URL's, so it must be encoded in a way that doesn't break the URL.

You can try URL encoding/decoding it out here: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/