So apparently I have gone “RPS way”, or to say “that’s cool but here is better way”  to get WLID working in your site.  Thanks to Angus Logan who was kind enough to quickly share with me the that’s-cool-but-there-is-a-better-way dude. I love to learn the better ways in doing things!!

The Microsoft Service Manager

So there is a simpler MSM found at http://msm.live.com/app.  The whole process of registering and managing your WLID application is LOT simpler.

When you get your Windows Live ID (WLID) SDK downloaded from the Windows Live developer site and wrapped into the VS solution, proceed to register your application.

Fill in required information and if you can manage to type the 6 CAPTCHA characters correctly (because I apparently need 5 tries) you will get this screen. Note your Application ID is nicely visible now! Tip: for the secret key I used the auto generated GUID from the VS Tools menu.

The Application ID, Secret Key still go to your web.config file under settings:

   1: <appSettings>

   2:     <add key="wll_appid" value="000000004C00...."/>

   3:     <add key="wll_secret" value="{578D73EF-619D-4007-B8C5-FFFFFFFFFFFF}"/>

   4:     <add key="wll_securityalgorithm" value="wsignin1.0"/>

   5: </appSettings>

I have highlighted the port number in the ReturnURL property when registering the site. This port is pointing to my local instance of Cassini that is running when I hit F5 on my VS solution. One thing that is important for this MSM is that you MUST add entries to your host file for the DNS name you had in the Return URL property.

If you venture to play around with Customize Sign-in you will find some cool stuff. Angus tells me there is more to come! For now you can download your current configuration file and go to town!

Here is my simple customization where I have added Vertigo logo to the Live ID sign-in page by changing the STRID_LOGO in the StringTable portion of the XML.

Have fun!