Forms-based authentication
Earlier we opened our SharePoint site up for anonymous access. We did that so that we could look at the programming of an RSS feed reader against feeds found in SharePoint without having to discuss authentication. In the real world, this isn't a practical solution because our IT administrators would panic at the thought of having corporate data exposed without any authentication.
When building applications for Windows Phone 7 that use data from a SharePoint server, some form of authentication is required. Though, NTLM or Kerberos authentication are not supported in the current version of the phone. Another mechanism must be employed to authenticate to SharePoint.
This is where we will use forms-based authentication (FBA) using claims-based authentication. Back in SharePoint 2003, setting up a site for forms-based authentication was a difficult job, and the end result was a very fragile site. This got better in 2007 and with 2010 the steps required for enabling...