No implementation details visible in UserManager<TUser> class in ASP.net Core

Question

I am quite new to ASP.NET core and i am exploring the ASP.NET core Identity library to see how the code works behind the screen.

I already know that the UserManager class is responsible for creating an user by calling the method: CreateAsync(TUser user);.

However when i inspect the UserManager class in Visual Studio by selecting the class and pressing F12 (Go To Definition) i do not see any implementation code in the CreateAsync method.

It looks like this:

        //
    // Summary:
    //     Creates the specified user in the backing store with no password, as an asynchronous
    //     operation.
    //
    // Parameters:
    //   user:
    //     The user to create.
    //
    // Returns:
    //     The System.Threading.Tasks.Task that represents the asynchronous operation, containing
    //     the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.IdentityResult of the operation.
    [DebuggerStepThrough]
    public virtual Task<IdentityResult> CreateAsync(TUser user);

This is the beginning of the file:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Claims;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;

namespace Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity
{
    //
    // Summary:
    //     Provides the APIs for managing user in a persistence store.
    //
    // Type parameters:
    //   TUser:
    //     The type encapsulating a user.
    public class UserManager<TUser> : IDisposable where TUser : class

When i go to GitHub i can see that the CreateAsync in the UserManager.cs indeed has implementation code like this:

/// <summary>
        /// Creates the specified <paramref name="user"/> in the backing store with given password,
        /// as an asynchronous operation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="user">The user to create.</param>
        /// <param name="password">The password for the user to hash and store.</param>
        /// <returns>
        /// The <see cref="Task"/> that represents the asynchronous operation, containing the <see cref="IdentityResult"/>
        /// of the operation.
        /// </returns>
        public virtual async Task<IdentityResult> CreateAsync(TUser user, string password)
        {
            ThrowIfDisposed();
            var passwordStore = GetPasswordStore();
            if (user == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(user));
            }
            if (password == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(password));
            }
            var result = await UpdatePasswordHash(passwordStore, user, password);
            if (!result.Succeeded)
            {
                return result;
            }
            return await CreateAsync(user);
        }

Obviously i am looking at different two different files.

Can anyone tell me where i can find the implementation of the CreateAsync method in Visual Studio?

Answer 1

Visual Studio doesn't offer the possibility of seing the content of an external assembly(.dll) that's being referenced in your solution.

You will need a decompiler like dotPeek to achieve what you want: https://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler/

Another useful tool in your case is Resharper, as well from JetBrains. dotPeek is free and Resharper has a trial version.