This course teaches Developers how to work with the Azure AD B2C service, how to integrate it into their applications, and how to customize its appearance and behavior. Developers will learn how to create and configure an Azure AD B2C tenant and how to produce complex, real-world B2C applications through the use of custom policies.
Azure AD B2C Service Introduction
A prerequisite to working with Azure AD B2C in a production environment is knowledge of authentication concepts and the techniques for properly creating and configuring a tenant and identity providers. This introductory module presents this prerequisite information, along with a general overview of B2C and how to create policies through the use of user flows.
Introduction to Custom Policies
Microsoft recommends that developers employ the built-in user flows to address most common identity tasks because they are easy to create and maintain. However, for complex, real-world scenarios, custom policies are often required since they are fully customizable to any situation. Custom policies are defined using xml configuration files that specify the identity experience by constructing a user journey through a series of orchestration steps. This module introduces custom policies, with a thorough discussion of the components of a policy file and a demonstration of how to upload and run custom policies through the Identity Experience Framework (IEF) of the B2C tenant.
HTTP REST and Validation
Many identity management implementations require integration with external services or business logic, such as validating input by verifying a user’s information in a database. The IEF, which underpins Azure AD B2C, supports this integration through RESTful calls from B2C custom policies. This module discusses the techniques for invoking a RESTful service and validating information.
Authenticating User Credentials
The primary purpose of Azure AD B2C is authenticating users. IEF in B2C requires additional configuration steps in the form of applications that must be registered to support authentication and custom policy UI definitions. This module demonstrates the steps involved in registering the required applications and presents the custom policy infrastructure necessary to display a login page, store user credentials and authenticate users based on those credentials.
Additional Concepts
This module covers the additional custom policy prerequisites that developers must know in order to work with the starter pack and B2C samples covered in the subsequent sections of the course. The heart of the content is the discussion of policy file hierarchies, which allow a custom policy implementation to be split across multiple xml files arranged in a hierarchical structure. The procedure for storing user data at the application level through extension properties is also presented. The module concludes with a discussion of debugging techniques using Application Insights.
Custom Policy Starter Pack
The starting point for any real-world B2C development project is the Microsoft-provided B2C custom policy starter pack. An introduction to the starter pack is presented, with detailed information about the content of the starter pack files, and how to download, configure, and run the policies contained in the files.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
MFA provides an additional layer of authentication protection that has been proven to substantially lower the likelihood that an account will be compromised. An introduction to MFA is presented, followed by detailed coverage of the technical profiles provided in the starter pack for local and social accounts with MFA.
B2C Samples
The B2C team at Microsoft spends considerable time and resources to provide a comprehensive set of samples that cover many of the scenarios that developers need to implement. These samples act as a form of documentation and serve as a best practice model for the scenarios that they encompass. Customizing email verification through the use of a display control is an example of an often requested B2C feature, for which a sample is provided. This module starts with a survey of the available samples, discusses how to incorporate them into the starter pack, and concludes with a case study of the display control sample.
UI Customization
An essential requirement of production B2C implementations is the ability to customize the user interface to minimally include company branding with a customized background and logo. More complex customization scenarios involve localization and the execution of custom JavaScript code. This module begins by discussing how B2C content is incorporated into an HTML page, how a custom B2C HTML page is specified, and how localization and JavaScript are enabled.
Day 4 Topics
Writing B2C client code with ASP.NET Framework
Custom policies are only one component of a full B2C implementation. In order to deploy the policies, they must be integrated with a client application. This module presents the code to call an ASP.NET framework web api secured by B2C from an ASP.NET framework web app.
Writing B2C client code with ASP.NET Core
This module represents the analogue of the previous module, but for ASP.NET Core rather than ASP.NET framework.
Graph API
The Graph API allows developers to programmatically manage B2C resources and represents an essential tool for building a real-world B2C application. Since B2C extension attributes cannot be viewed and modified in the Azure portal, one of the most common use cases for the Graph API is to manage extension attributes defined in custom policies. This module demonstrates how to register and write a .NET application that uses the Graph API to perform CRUD operations on the resources in the B2C directory.
This course is for Azure application developers who are looking for guidance and best practices associated with using the Azure AD B2C service to support the identity and access control needs of their applications.
This course is for application developers who are planning to use the Azure AD B2C service for their applications’ identity needs. Although not required, developers will benefit from prior experience working with Azure and modern identity protocols.
Atmosera can provide this course virtually or on-site. Please reach out to discuss your requirements.