Trying to get all roles in Identity

Question

I am trying to get a list of all the roles in my application. I have looked at the following post Getting All Users... and other sources. Here is my code which I think is what I am supposed to do.

var roleStore = new RoleStore<IdentityRole>(context)
var roleMngr  = new RoleManager<IdentityRole>(roleStore);
List<string> roles = roleMngr.Roles.ToList();

However, I’m getting the following error: Cannot implicitly convert type GenericList(IdentityRole) to List(string). Any suggestions? I am trying to get the list so I can populate a dropdown list on a registration page to assign a user to a particular role. Using ASPNet 4.5 and identity framework 2 (I think).

PS I’ve also tried the Roles.GetAllRoles method with no success.

Answer 1

Looking at your reference link and question it self, it is clear that the role manager (roleMngr) is type of IdentityRole, so that roles has to be the same type if you trying to get the list of roles.

Use var insted of List<string> or use List<IdentityRole>.

var roleStore = new RoleStore<IdentityRole>(context);
var roleMngr = new RoleManager<IdentityRole>(roleStore); 

var roles = roleMngr.Roles.ToList();

Answer 2

If it's a list of string role names you're after, you could do

List<string> roles = roleMngr.Roles.Select(x => x.Name).ToList();

I would personally use var, but included the type here to illustrate the return type.

Answer 3

I would rather not use 'var' as it cannot be used on fields at class scope and if can not be initialized to null and many other limitations. In any case this will be cleaner and it worked for me:

RoleStore<IdentityRole> roleStore = new RoleStore<IdentityRole>(_context);
RoleManager<IdentityRole> roleMngr = new RoleManager<IdentityRole>(roleStore);
List<IdentityRole> roles = roleMngr.Roles.ToList();

and then you can cast the list 'roles' to any type of list (just cast it to string list or SelectListItem list), for example in this case if you wanted to display it in a select tag like this:

 <select class="custom-select" asp-for="Input.Role" asp-items="
 Model._Roles"> </select>

You can define '_Roles' as a RegisterModel property which receives the 'roles' list as a value.

Answer 4

Adding this to help others who may have a custom type Identity (not the default string). If you have, let's say int, you can use this:

var roleStore = new RoleStore<AppRole, int, AppUserRole>(dbContext);
var roleMngr = new RoleManager<AppRole, int>(roleStore);

public class AppUserRole : IdentityUserRole<int> {}
public class AppRole : IdentityRole<int, AppUserRole> {}

Answer 5

In dotnet5 I just used this RoleStore without needing RoleManager

var roleStore = new RoleStore<IdentityRole>(_context);
List<IdentityRole> roles = roleStore.Roles.ToList();