The way I see it, a user could download a pre-built news posting application which uses the Membership API to keep track of users and roles etc...
Then, that same user wants to download some forum software. They download forum software which also uses the Membership API, point both applications to the same provider, and you have the same user base, correct?
Now, lets say the news application has personalization properties for firstName and lastName. This of course is stored in the Membership provider store. However, I noticed that each personalization property has an ApplicationID property, pointing to the ASP.net application. Wouldn't it be beneficial if multiple applications were able to access the same properties?
One arguement is security. What if you have a property for a SS number, and a client downloads a malicious software which reads this and sends it to their site. One idea: properties defined in the web.config could have a property called allowSharing which would either seal the property to that application, or allow it to be freely distributed.
What if you want two seperate properties with the same name for different applications. You could add another property named alwaysCreate which would make sure it would use the one created for the application and not from another.
Finally, this site could have a list of predetermined property names, so programmers can use those for easy application integration. Just think, installing a new application with the same user base could be SO easy!
I bet this has already been thought of, so if there's something bad I'm missing, tell me (or just laugh at me if this is already (or will be) implemented).
Any comments?
Thanks!