GetPassword

This method returns the password for the specified user name from the database.

Declaration

// C#
public override string GetPassword(string userName, string passwordAnswer);

Parameters

userName

The user to retrieve the password for.
passwordAnswer

The password answer for the user.

Return Value

A password string for the specified user name.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException - The userName parameter is null or the passwordAnswer parameter is null when the RequiresQuestionAndAnswer property is true.

System.Web.Security.MembershipPasswordException - The passwordAnswer parameter is invalid or the user identified by userName is being locked.

System.Configuration.Provider.ProviderException - The userName parameter is not found in the membership database, or an error occurred when retrieving the password from the membership database.

NotSupportedException - EnablePasswordRetrieval property is set to false.

ArgumentException - One of the following conditions exists:

The userName parameter is an empty string, contains a comma, or is longer than 256 characters.
The passwordAnswer parameter is an empty string and the RequiresQuestionAndAnswer property is true, or the passwordAnswer parameter is longer than 128 characters (including the encoded version).

Remarks

Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed from the userName and passwordAnswer parameter values.

The GetPassword method requires that the EnablePasswordRetrieval property be set to true. However, if the PasswordFormat property is set to Hashed, then a ProviderException is thrown when the provider is initialized. In other words, the GetPassword method cannot retrieve Hashed passwords. By default, the EnablePasswordRetrieval property is set to false.

If the RequiresQuestionAndAnswer property is set to true and an incorrect password answer is supplied to the GetPassword method, then the internal counter that tracks invalid password-answer attempts is incremented by one. This can result in the user being locked out and unable to log on until the lock status is cleared by a call to the UnlockUser method. If the correct password answer is supplied and the user is not currently locked out, then the internal counter that tracks invalid password-answer attempts is reset to zero.