Invalid value for key 'attachdbfilename' on WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I get this error message when trying to initialize my database connection using SimpleMembership. The first initialize statement goes through, while the second does not. The goal is to use connection strings defined in the Azure service configuration when running Azure emulator or when deployed.
Web.config:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="DefaultConnection" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=aspnet-**********;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnet-**********.mdf" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
Azure .cscfg configuration files:
<Setting name="SqlConnectionString" value="Server=Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=aspnet-********;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnet-********.mdf" />
SimpleMembershipInitializer:
string connectionStringName = "DefaultConnection";
string connectionString = CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("SqlConnectionString");
const string userTableName = "UserProfile";
const string providerName = "System.Data.SqlClient";
const string userIdColumn = "UserId";
const string userNameColumn = "UserName";
// This works fine.
// WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection(connectionStringName, userTableName, userIdColumn, userNameColumn, autoCreateTables: true);
// This throws exception.
// WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection(connectionString, providerName, userTableName, userIdColumn, userNameColumn, autoCreateTables: true);
Environment: Visual Studio 2012, EntityFramework 5.0 and MVC4 RTM with default SimpleMembership structure.
Full stacktrace:
[ArgumentException: Invalid value for key 'attachdbfilename'.]
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionString.VerifyLocalHostAndFixup(String& host, Boolean enforceLocalHost, Boolean fixup) +888986
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionString..ctor(String connectionString) +5330002
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionFactory.CreateConnectionOptions(String connectionString, DbConnectionOptions previous) +24
System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnectionPoolGroup(DbConnectionPoolKey key, DbConnectionPoolGroupOptions poolOptions, DbConnectionOptions& userConnectionOptions) +167
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.ConnectionString_Set(DbConnectionPoolKey key) +61
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.set_ConnectionString(String value) +66
WebMatrix.Data.DbProviderFactoryWrapper.CreateConnection(String connectionString) +96
WebMatrix.Data.<>c__DisplayClass15.<OpenConnectionStringInternal>b__14() +16
WebMatrix.Data.Database.get_Connection() +19
WebMatrix.Data.Database.EnsureConnectionOpen() +12
WebMatrix.Data.<QueryInternal>d__0.MoveNext() +66
System.Linq.Enumerable.FirstOrDefault(IEnumerable`1 source) +164
WebMatrix.Data.Database.QuerySingle(String commandText, Object[] args) +103
WebMatrix.WebData.DatabaseWrapper.QuerySingle(String commandText, Object[] parameters) +14
WebMatrix.WebData.SimpleMembershipProvider.CheckTableExists(IDatabase db, String tableName) +57
WebMatrix.WebData.SimpleMembershipProvider.CreateTablesIfNeeded() +49
WebMatrix.WebData.WebSecurity.InitializeMembershipProvider(SimpleMembershipProvider simpleMembership, DatabaseConnectionInfo connect, String userTableName, String userIdColumn, String userNameColumn, Boolean createTables) +73
WebMatrix.WebData.WebSecurity.InitializeProviders(DatabaseConnectionInfo connect, String userTableName, String userIdColumn, String userNameColumn, Boolean autoCreateTables) +51
WebMatrix.WebData.WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection(String connectionString, String providerName, String userTableName, String userIdColumn, String userNameColumn, Boolean autoCreateTables) +63
MyProject.Filters.SimpleMembershipInitializer..ctor() in c:\Repos\MyRepo\trunk\Web\MyProject\Filters\InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute.cs:55
[InvalidOperationException: The ASP.NET Simple Membership database could not be initialized. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256588]
MyProject.Filters.SimpleMembershipInitializer..ctor() in c:\Repos\MyRepo\trunk\Web\MyProject\Filters\InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute.cs:59
[TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.]
System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) +0
System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) +113
System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) +232
System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) +83
System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type) +6
System.Threading.LazyHelpers`1.ActivatorFactorySelector() +68
System.Threading.LazyInitializer.EnsureInitializedCore(T& target, Boolean& initialized, Object& syncLock, Func`1 valueFactory) +115
System.Threading.LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(T& target, Boolean& initialized, Object& syncLock) +106
MyProject.Filters.InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute.OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) in c:\Repos\MyRepo\trunk\Web\MyProject\Filters\InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute.cs:23
System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodFilterAsynchronously(IActionFilter filter, ActionExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 nextInChain) +69
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass3b.<BeginInvokeActionMethodWithFilters>b__35() +21
System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodFilterAsynchronously(IActionFilter filter, ActionExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 nextInChain) +489
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass3b.<BeginInvokeActionMethodWithFilters>b__35() +21
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass37.<BeginInvokeActionMethodWithFilters>b__31(AsyncCallback asyncCallback, Object asyncState) +191
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.Begin(AsyncCallback callback, Object state, Int32 timeout) +130
System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.BeginInvokeActionMethodWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor, IDictionary`2 parameters, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +197
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass25.<BeginInvokeAction>b__1e(AsyncCallback asyncCallback, Object asyncState) +446
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.Begin(AsyncCallback callback, Object state, Int32 timeout) +130
System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.BeginInvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +302
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1d.<BeginExecuteCore>b__17(AsyncCallback asyncCallback, Object asyncState) +30
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.Begin(AsyncCallback callback, Object state, Int32 timeout) +130
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.BeginExecuteCore(AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +382
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.Begin(AsyncCallback callback, Object state, Int32 timeout) +130
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.BeginExecute(RequestContext requestContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +317
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.System.Web.Mvc.Async.IAsyncController.BeginExecute(RequestContext requestContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +15
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass8.<BeginProcessRequest>b__2(AsyncCallback asyncCallback, Object asyncState) +71
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.Begin(AsyncCallback callback, Object state, Int32 timeout) +130
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContextBase httpContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +249
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext httpContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +50
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext context, AsyncCallback cb, Object extraData) +16
System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +301
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +155

Answer 1

It seems to me you might be suffering from the lack of double-escaping (do \\v11.0 instead of \v11.0), as discussed in this post.

Answer 2

I'm ashamed to realize I had a typo in my connection strings. I was getting connection strings from Azure Deployment configuration files, such as:
<Setting name="SqlConnectionString" value="Server=Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;Initial Catalog=aspnet-********;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnet-********.mdf" />
The typo was included here, at the start of the value string. It must've been a copy'n'paste bug.
This string was duplicated in Azure configuration files Local.cscfg and Cloud.cscfg, for Azure emulator and Azure deployment respectively, as well as in web.config for running locally outside emulator. The typo was only in the Local.cscfg file, which made me very confused when trying to figure out why it did not work in certain scenarios. In addition the typo was for some reason very hard for me to spot. In hindsight I don't see how I didn't figure this out sooner.

Answer 3

I don't have a solution yet, but here is my own investigation and theory so far:
I took a look at the source code of WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection() and think maybe I have found a bug. It doesn't seem to ever set the DatabaseConnectionInfo.Type property, which defaults to ConnectionStringName, which could explain why it doesn't like my connection string, since it would interpret it as a connection string name instead.
WebSecurity class:
public static void InitializeDatabaseConnection(string connectionString, string providerName, string userTableName, string userIdColumn, string userNameColumn, bool autoCreateTables)
{
WebSecurity.InitializeProviders(new DatabaseConnectionInfo()
{
ConnectionString = connectionString,
ProviderName = providerName
}, userTableName, userIdColumn, userNameColumn, autoCreateTables);
}
DatabaseConnectionInfo class:
public Database Connect()
{
switch (this.Type)
{
case DatabaseConnectionInfo.ConnectionType.ConnectionStringName:
return Database.Open(this.ConnectionStringName);
case DatabaseConnectionInfo.ConnectionType.ConnectionString:
return Database.OpenConnectionString(this.ConnectionString, this.ProviderName);
default:
return (Database) null;
}
}
private enum ConnectionType
{
ConnectionStringName,
ConnectionString,
}