Requirements for Using Web Parts Personalization

Personalization is a fundamental capability of the ASP.NET Web Parts control set, and is required when you want to create pages with Web Parts controls that allow users to modify or personalize Web pages. This topic discusses the basic requirements for working with Web Parts personalization. For additional material on personalization and what it does within the Web Parts control set, see Web Parts Personalization Overview.

Configuring a Site for Membership

A prerequisite for using personalization is an ASP.NET Web site configured to identify individual users. Typically this site will use Windows authentication if it is a local intranet site, or forms authentication if it is an Internet site. For details on configuring a site, see Configuring ASP.NET Applications.

Selecting a Provider

To use personalization, you need a provider to manage the personalization data, and a database to store it. After you have configured a site for membership, you can optionally use the default provider. ASP.NET includes a default Microsoft SQL Server Express provider and database to store personalization data. If you want to use this provider, no additional setup is required. You can also set up your own custom database provider.

Creating a Page with Web Parts Controls

Another requirement for working with personalization is to create a page that uses Web Parts controls. For details on how to create a basic Web Parts page with personalization, see Walkthrough: Creating a Web Parts Page. For information on how to work with user controls and personalization, see Walkthrough: Implementing Web Parts Personalization with a User Control.

Disabling Web Parts Personalization

While Web Parts personalization is enabled by default, you might want to disable it in certain cases. For example, you might want to use some Web Parts controls on a page, but not allow users to personalize the page. For details on how to disable personalization, see How to: Disable Web Parts Personalization.

See Also

Concepts

ASP.NET Web Parts Overview
Web Parts Personalization Overview