Introduction

In this day and age, it's super important to have a secure and easy-to-use login/signup system for your web application. And.NET Core is a great framework for doing just that - it's cross-platform and super fast, so you don't have to worry about it. In this guide, we'll show you how to make a custom login/signup system with .NET Core. Plus, we'll give you some tips on how to make it look and feel better with Bootstrap - a popular UI framework for making responsive and eye-catching web interfaces.

 

Requirements

Before continuing with the tutorial, make sure you have the following requirements are met:

1. Install the .NET Core SDK on your development computer.
2. Install a code editor like Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio.
3. Must have the basic knowledge of C# and ASP.NET Core.

 

Step 1: Create a New .NET Core Project

Setting up a new .NET Core project started, open a terminal or command prompt and run the following commands:

dotnet new web -n CustomLoginSignup
cd CustomLoginSignup

This will create a new .NET Core web application named "CustomLoginSignup."

 

Step 2: Install Bootstrap

To use Bootstrap's functionality in the front end, you need to include Bootstrap in your project. To do this, you can either download the Bootstrap CSS and JavaScript files manually or use a package manager like npm or Bower. For simplicity, we embed Bootstrap into our project using a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

If you include Bootstrap in your theme, be sure to add these lines to the _Layout.chtml file inside your  Views/Shared folder:

 

Html Code

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.16.0/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

 

Step 3: Create Login and Signup Views

Let's now begin the creation of the login view and signup view. Create two new folders in the 'Views' folder, named 'Account' and 'Views', respectively. These folders will contain two Razor views, 'Login' and 'Signup'. These Razor views will include the HTML structure of the login form and the signup form respectively.

 

Step 4: Create Login and Signup Controllers

Now, configure your controller to control login and signup requests. Run the following command in the terminal:

dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RuntimeCompilation
dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools

Create two controllers, ‘LoginController’ and ‘SignupController’, to manage user authentication and signup respectively. Implement the required actions and logic.

 

Step 5: Configure Identity

You can manage user authentication using ASP.NET Core Identity. To configure  identity, paste the following code into the ConfigureServices.cs file:

 services.AddIdentity<IdentityUser, IdentityRole>()
    .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
    .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

Also, don't forget to configure the necessary middleware and services for authentication in the `Configure` method of the same file.

 

Step 6: Create a Database Context

A database context is required to save user data to the database. To define the database context for your application, create an inheritable class called DbContext and add it to your startup.cs file using the ConfigureServices method.

 

Step 7: Implement Login and Signup Logic

LoginController and SignupController use Identity to implement login and signup operations. Ensure user input is validated, passwords are encrypted, and user data is stored securely.

 

Conclusion

This tutorial has provided a step-by-step guide on how to develop a.NET Core-based login and signup solution, as well as how to enhance the front end using Bootstrap. Establishing a reliable authentication system is essential for the development of secure and intuitive web applications. By adhering to these steps and tailoring them to the specific needs of your project, you can ensure a smooth login and signup process for your users.