Accounts in MSAL Node

This article shows you how to use the msal-node library to access cached accounts in your Node.js application. The APIs, getAllAccounts(), getAccountByHomeId(), and getAccountByLocalId() are covered

Prerequisites

• Node.js

Usage

The msal-node library provides the following different APIs to access cached accounts:

• getAllAccounts(): returns all the accounts currently in the cache. An application must choose an account to acquire tokens silently.
• getAccountByHomeId(): receives a homeAccountId string and returns the matching account from the cache.
• getAccountByLocalId(): receives a localAccountId string and returns the matching account from the cache.

The following are usage examples for each API:

getAllAccounts

For a multiple accounts scenario:

// Initiates Acquire Token Silent flow
function callAcquireTokenSilent() {
    // Find all accounts
    const msalTokenCache = myMSALObj.getTokenCache();
    const cachedAccounts = await msalTokenCache.getAllAccounts();

    // Account selection logic would go here

    const account = .... // Select Account code

    // Build silent request after account is selected
    const silentRequest = {
        account: account,
        scopes: scopes,
    };

    // Acquire Token Silently to be used in MS Graph call
    myMSALObj.acquireTokenSilent(silentRequest)
        .then((response) => {
            // Successful response handling
        })
        .catch((error) => {
            // Error handling
        });
}

getAccountByHomeId and getAccountByLocalId

For a single account scenario, the homeAccountId or localAccountId must be obtained from the initial AuthResponse object received from a non-silent authorization flow, such as the Auth Code flow.

// Initialize global homeAccountId variable, ideally stored in application state
let homeAccountId = null; // Same for localAccountId

// Get MSAL Token Cache from MSAL Client Applicaiton object
const msalTokenCache = myMSALObj.getTokenCache();

// Initial token acquisition, second leg of Auth Code flow
function getTokenAuthCode() {
    const tokenRequest = {
        code: req.query.code,
        redirectUri: "http://localhost:3000/redirect",
        scopes: scopes,
    };

    myMSALObj.acquireTokenByCode(tokenRequest).then((response) => {
        // Home account ID or local account ID to be used to find the right account before acquireTokenSilent
        homeAccountId = response.account.homeAccountId; // Same for localAccountId
        .
        .
        .
        // Handle successful token response
    }).catch((error) => {
        // Handle token request error
    });
}

Once the account and tokens are cached and the application state holds the homeAccountId or localAccountId string, getAccountByHomeId and getAccountByLocalId can be used before an acquireTokenSilent call:

async function getResource() {
    // Find account using homeAccountId or localAccountId built after receiving auth code token response
    const account = await msalTokenCache.getAccountByHomeId(app.locals.homeAccountId); // alternativley: await msalTokenCache.getAccountByLocalId(localAccountId) if using localAccountId

    // Build silent request
    const silentRequest = {
        account: account,
        scopes: scopes,
    };
    // Acquire Token Silently to be used in Resource API call
    pca.acquireTokenSilent(silentRequest)
        .then((response) => {
            // Handle successful resource API response
        })
        .catch((error) => {
            // Handle resource API request error
        });
}

For a multiple accounts scenario, please should modify the sample (in /graphCall route) to list all cached accounts and choose a specific account. You may also need to customize the related view templates and handlebars template params.

See also

• The current msal-node silent-flow sample has a working single account scenario that uses getAccountByHomeId().