ASP.NET MVC Simple authentication without a database

Sometimes you just need a really simple authentication method in your ASP.NET MVC applications. The default MVC application has the necessary providers setup so that you can have a more flexible Membership system, but if you just want a single username and password, then this will help you.

In your web.config change the Authentication section to the following:

<authentication mode="Forms">
    <forms loginUrl="~/Account/LogOn" timeout="2880">
        <credentials passwordFormat="Clear">
            <user name="test" password="test" />
        </credentials>
    </forms>
</authentication>

Then in the AccountModel.cs file, find the method ValidateUser and change the code to the following:

public bool ValidateUser(string userName, string password) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(userName)) throw new ArgumentException("Value cannot be null or empty.", "userName");
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(password)) throw new ArgumentException("Value cannot be null or empty.", "password");

    return FormsAuthentication.Authenticate(userName, password);
}

The default setup should now work without using the provider.