Quickstart: Get a token and call the Microsoft Graph API by using a console app's identity

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Quickstart: Acquire a token and call Microsoft Graph in a .NET console app

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The following quickstart uses a code sample to demonstrates how a .NET console application can get an access token to call the Microsoft Graph API and display a list of users in the directory. It also demonstrates how a job or a Windows service can run with an application identity, instead of a user's identity. The sample console application in this quickstart is also a daemon application, therefore it's a confidential client application.

Prerequisites

A minimum requirement of .NET 6.0 SDK.

Download and configure your quickstart app

Step 1: Configure your application in the Azure portal

For the code sample in this quickstart to work, create a client secret and add the Graph API's User.Read.All application permission.

Already configured Your application is configured with these attributes.

Step 2: Download your Visual Studio project

Run the project by using Visual Studio 2022.

Tip

To avoid errors caused by path length limitations in Windows, we recommend extracting the archive or cloning the repository into a directory near the root of your drive.

Note

Enter_the_Supported_Account_Info_Here

Running the application now results in the output HTTP 403 - Forbidden* error: "Insufficient privileges to complete the operation. This error occurs because any app-only permission requires a Global Administrator of the directory to give consent to the application. Select one of the following options, depending on the role.

Global tenant administrator

For a global tenant administrator, go to the API Permissions page and select Grant admin consent for Enter_the_Tenant_Name_Here.

Standard user

For a standard user of your tenant, ask a Global Administrator to grant admin consent to the application. To do this, provide the following URL to the administrator:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/Enter_the_Tenant_Id_Here/adminconsent?client_id=Enter_the_Application_Id_Here

The error AADSTS50011: No reply address is registered for the application may be displayed after you grant consent to the app by using the preceding URL. This error occurs because the application and the URL don't have a redirect URI. This can be ignored.

Step 4: Run the application

In Visual Studio, press F5 to run the application. Otherwise, run the application via command prompt, console, or terminal:

cd {ProjectFolder}\1-Call-MSGraph\daemon-console
dotnet run

In that code:

  • {ProjectFolder} is the folder where you extracted the .zip file. An example is C:\Azure-Samples\active-directory-dotnetcore-daemon-v2.

A list of users in Microsoft Entra ID should be displayed as a result.

This quickstart application uses a client secret to identify itself as a confidential client. The client secret is added as a plain-text file to the project files. For security reasons, it is recommended to use a certificate instead of a client secret before considering the application as a production application. For more information on how to use a certificate, see these instructions.

More information

This section gives an overview of the code required to sign in users. This overview can be useful to understand how the > code works, what the main arguments are, and how to add sign-in to an existing .NET console application.

How the sample works

Diagram that shows how the sample app generated by this quickstart works.

Microsoft.Identity.Web.GraphServiceClient

Microsoft Identity Web (in the Microsoft.Identity.Web.TokenAcquisition package) is the library that's used to request tokens for accessing an API protected by the Microsoft identity platform. This quickstart requests tokens by using the application's own identity instead of delegated permissions. The authentication flow in this case is known as a client credentials OAuth flow. For more information on how to use MSAL.NET with a client credentials flow, see this article. Given the daemon app in this quickstart calls Microsoft Graph, you install the Microsoft.Identity.Web.GraphServiceClient package, which handles automatically authenticated requests to Microsoft Graph (and references itself Microsoft.Identity.Web.TokenAcquisition)

Microsoft.Identity.Web.GraphServiceClient can be installed by running the following command in the Visual Studio Package Manager Console:

dotnet add package Microsoft.Identity.Web.GraphServiceClient

Application initialization

Add the reference for Microsoft.Identity.Web by adding the following code:

using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Graph;
using Microsoft.Identity.Abstractions;
using Microsoft.Identity.Web;

Then, initialize the app with the following:

// Get the Token acquirer factory instance. By default it reads an appsettings.json
// file if it exists in the same folder as the app (make sure that the 
// "Copy to Output Directory" property of the appsettings.json file is "Copy if newer").
TokenAcquirerFactory tokenAcquirerFactory = TokenAcquirerFactory.GetDefaultInstance();

// Configure the application options to be read from the configuration
// and add the services you need (Graph, token cache)
IServiceCollection services = tokenAcquirerFactory.Services;
services.AddMicrosoftGraph();
// By default, you get an in-memory token cache.
// For more token cache serialization options, see https://aka.ms/msal-net-token-cache-serialization

// Resolve the dependency injection.
var serviceProvider = tokenAcquirerFactory.Build();

This code uses the configuration defined in the appsettings.json file:

{
   "AzureAd": {
       "Instance": "https://login.microsoftonline.com/",
       "TenantId": "[Enter here the tenantID or domain name for your Azure AD tenant]",
       "ClientId": "[Enter here the ClientId for your application]",
       "ClientCredentials": [
           {
              "SourceType": "ClientSecret",
              "ClientSecret": "[Enter here a client secret for your application]"
           }
       ]
   }
}
Element Description
ClientSecret The client secret created for the application in the Azure portal.
ClientId The application (client) ID for the application registered in the Azure portal. This value can be found on the app's Overview page in the Azure portal.
Instance (Optional) The security token service (STS) could instance endpoint for the app to authenticate. It's usually https://login.microsoftonline.com/ for the public cloud.
TenantId Name of the tenant or the tenant ID.

For more information, see the reference documentation for ConfidentialClientApplication.

Calling Microsoft Graph

To request a token by using the app's identity, use the AcquireTokenForClient method:

GraphServiceClient graphServiceClient = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<GraphServiceClient>();
var users = await graphServiceClient.Users
              .GetAsync(r => r.Options.WithAppOnly());

Help and support

If you need help, want to report an issue, or want to learn about your support options, see Help and support for developers.

Next steps

To learn more about daemon applications, see the scenario overview: