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Using CSOM for .NET Standard instead of CSOM for .NET Framework

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Important

The SharePoint Add-In model in SharePoint Online has been deprecated as of November 27th 2023, checkout the full retirement announcement to learn more.

Deprecation means that the feature will not get any new investments, but it's still supported. SharePoint add-in model is retired fully on April 2nd, 2026 and is no longer available after that time. Primary replacement technology for the SharePoint add-in model is SharePoint Framework (SPFx) which continues to be supported also in future.

You can use the SharePoint client object model (CSOM) to retrieve, update, and manage data in SharePoint. SharePoint makes the CSOM available in several forms:

  • .NET Framework redistributable assemblies
  • .NET Standard redistributable assemblies
  • JavaScript library (JSOM)
  • REST/OData endpoints

In this article, we'll focus on explaining what the differences are between the .NET Framework version and the .NET Standard version redistributable. In many ways both versions are identical and if you've been writing code using the .NET Framework version then that code and everything you've learned is, for the most part, still relevant when working with the .NET Standard version.

Key differences between the .NET Framework version and the .NET Standard version

Below table outlines the differences between both versions and provides guidelines on how to handle the differences.

CSOM feature .NET Framework version .NET Standard version Guidelines
.NET supportability .NET Framework 4.5+ .NET Framework 4.6.1+, .NET Core 2.0+, Mono 5.4+ (.NET docs) It's recommended to use the CSOM for .NET Standard version for all your SharePoint Online CSOM developments
Cross platform No Yes (can be used on any platform that support .NET Standard) For cross platform, you have to use CSOM for .NET Standard
On-Premises SharePoint support Yes No The CSOM .NET Framework versions are still fully supported and being updated, so use those for on-premises SharePoint development
Support for legacy authentication flows (so called cookie based auth using the SharePointOnlineCredentials class) Yes No See the Using modern authentication with CSOM for .NET Standard chapter. Using Azure AD applications to configure authentication for SharePoint Online is the recommended approach
SaveBinaryDirect / OpenBinaryDirect APIs (webdav based) Yes No Use the regular file APIs in CSOM as it's not recommended to use the BinaryDirect APIs, even not when using the .NET Framework version
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Utilities.HttpUtility class Yes No Switch to similar classes in .NET such as System.Web.HttpUtility
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.EventReceivers namespace Yes No Switch to modern eventing concepts such as Web Hooks.

Note

.NET Standard version of the CSOM Assemblies are included on the existing NuGet package called Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM from the version 16.1.20211.12000 onwards. The below sample requires this version or higher to work in a .Net core/standard targeted project.

Using modern authentication with CSOM for .NET Standard

Using user/password based authentication, implemented via the SharePointOnlineCredentials class, is a common approach for developers using CSOM for .NET Framework. In CSOM for .NET Standard this isn't possible anymore, it's up to the developer using CSOM for .NET Standard to obtain an OAuth access token and use that when making calls to SharePoint Online. The recommended approach for getting access tokens for SharePoint Online is by setting up an Azure AD application. For CSOM for .NET Standard the only thing that matters are that you obtain a valid access token, this can be using resource owner password credential flow, using device login, using certificate based auth,...

In this chapter, we'll use an OAuth resource owner password credential flow resulting in an OAuth access token that then is used by CSOM for authenticating requests against SharePoint Online as that mimics the behavior of the SharePointOnlineCredentials class.

Configuring an application in Azure AD

Below steps will help you create and configure an application in Azure Active Directory:

  • Go to Azure AD Portal via https://aad.portal.azure.com
  • Select Azure Active Directory and on App registrations in the left navigation
  • Select New registration
  • Enter a name for your application and select Register
  • Go to API permissions to grant permissions to your application, select Add a permission, choose SharePoint, Delegated permissions and select for example AllSites.Manage
  • Select Grant admin consent to consent the application's requested permissions
  • Select Authentication in the left navigation
  • Change Allow public client flows from No to Yes
  • Select Overview and copy the application ID to the clipboard (you'll need it later on)

Getting an access token from Azure AD and using that in your CSOM for .NET Standard-based application

When using CSOM for .NET Standard it's the responsibility of the developer to obtain an access token for SharePoint Online and ensure, it's inserted into each call made to SharePoint Online. A common code pattern to realize this is shown below:

public ClientContext GetContext(Uri web, string userPrincipalName, SecureString userPassword)
{
    context.ExecutingWebRequest += (sender, e) =>
    {
        // Get an access token using your preferred approach
        string accessToken = MyCodeToGetAnAccessToken(new Uri($"{web.Scheme}://{web.DnsSafeHost}"), userPrincipalName, new System.Net.NetworkCredential(string.Empty, userPassword).Password);
        // Insert the access token in the request
        e.WebRequestExecutor.RequestHeaders["Authorization"] = "Bearer " + accessToken;
    };
}

The ClientContext obtained via the GetContext method can be used like any other ClientContext and will work with all your existing code. Below code snippets show a helper class and console app using the helper class, reusing these classes will make it easy to implement an equivalent for the SharePointOnlineCredentials class.

Note

The PnP Sites Core library has a similar AuthenticationManager class that supports many more Azure AD based authentication flows.

Console app sample

public static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
    Uri site = new Uri("https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/siteA");
    string user = "joe.doe@contoso.onmicrosoft.com";
    SecureString password = GetSecureString($"Password for {user}");

    // Note: The PnP Sites Core AuthenticationManager class also supports this
    using (var authenticationManager = new AuthenticationManager())
    using (var context = authenticationManager.GetContext(site, user, password))
    {
        context.Load(context.Web, p => p.Title);
        await context.ExecuteQueryAsync();
        Console.WriteLine($"Title: {context.Web.Title}");
    }
}

AuthenticationManager sample class

Note

Update the defaultAADAppId with the application id of the app you've registered in Azure AD

Note

If you are using CSOM for .NET Standard with Azure Functions v3 you may encounter a runtime error related to System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt. This can be resolved by following this workaround.

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using System;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Security;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Web;

namespace CSOMDemo
{
    public class AuthenticationManager: IDisposable
    {
        private static readonly HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient();
        private const string tokenEndpoint = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/token";

        private const string defaultAADAppId = "986002f6-c3f6-43ab-913e-78cca185c392";

        // Token cache handling
        private static readonly SemaphoreSlim semaphoreSlimTokens = new SemaphoreSlim(1);
        private AutoResetEvent tokenResetEvent = null;
        private readonly ConcurrentDictionary<string, string> tokenCache = new ConcurrentDictionary<string, string>();
        private bool disposedValue;

        internal class TokenWaitInfo
        {
            public RegisteredWaitHandle Handle = null;
        }

        public ClientContext GetContext(Uri web, string userPrincipalName, SecureString userPassword)
        {
            var context = new ClientContext(web);

            context.ExecutingWebRequest += (sender, e) =>
            {
                string accessToken = EnsureAccessTokenAsync(new Uri($"{web.Scheme}://{web.DnsSafeHost}"), userPrincipalName, new System.Net.NetworkCredential(string.Empty, userPassword).Password).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
                e.WebRequestExecutor.RequestHeaders["Authorization"] = "Bearer " + accessToken;
            };

            return context;
        }


        public async Task<string> EnsureAccessTokenAsync(Uri resourceUri, string userPrincipalName, string userPassword)
        {
            string accessTokenFromCache = TokenFromCache(resourceUri, tokenCache);
            if (accessTokenFromCache == null)
            {
                await semaphoreSlimTokens.WaitAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
                try
                {
                    // No async methods are allowed in a lock section
                    string accessToken = await AcquireTokenAsync(resourceUri, userPrincipalName, userPassword).ConfigureAwait(false);
                    Console.WriteLine($"Successfully requested new access token resource {resourceUri.DnsSafeHost} for user {userPrincipalName}");
                    AddTokenToCache(resourceUri, tokenCache, accessToken);

                    // Register a thread to invalidate the access token once's it's expired
                    tokenResetEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
                    TokenWaitInfo wi = new TokenWaitInfo();
                    wi.Handle = ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject(
                        tokenResetEvent,
                        async (state, timedOut) =>
                        {
                            if (!timedOut)
                            {
                                TokenWaitInfo internalWaitToken = (TokenWaitInfo)state;
                                if (internalWaitToken.Handle != null)
                                {
                                    internalWaitToken.Handle.Unregister(null);
                                }
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                try
                                {
                                    // Take a lock to ensure no other threads are updating the SharePoint Access token at this time
                                    await semaphoreSlimTokens.WaitAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
                                    RemoveTokenFromCache(resourceUri, tokenCache);
                                    Console.WriteLine($"Cached token for resource {resourceUri.DnsSafeHost} and user {userPrincipalName} expired");
                                }
                                catch (Exception ex)
                                {
                                    Console.WriteLine($"Something went wrong during cache token invalidation: {ex.Message}");
                                    RemoveTokenFromCache(resourceUri, tokenCache);
                                }
                                finally
                                {
                                    semaphoreSlimTokens.Release();
                                }
                            }
                        },
                        wi,
                        (uint)CalculateThreadSleep(accessToken).TotalMilliseconds,
                        true
                    );

                    return accessToken;

                }
                finally
                {
                    semaphoreSlimTokens.Release();
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Returning token from cache for resource {resourceUri.DnsSafeHost} and user {userPrincipalName}");
                return accessTokenFromCache;
            }
        }

        private async Task<string> AcquireTokenAsync(Uri resourceUri, string username, string password)
        {
            string resource = $"{resourceUri.Scheme}://{resourceUri.DnsSafeHost}";

            var clientId = defaultAADAppId;
            var body = $"resource={resource}&client_id={clientId}&grant_type=password&username={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(username)}&password={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(password)}";
            using (var stringContent = new StringContent(body, Encoding.UTF8, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"))
            {

                var result = await httpClient.PostAsync(tokenEndpoint, stringContent).ContinueWith((response) =>
                {
                    return response.Result.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
                }).ConfigureAwait(false);

                var tokenResult = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<JsonElement>(result);
                var token = tokenResult.GetProperty("access_token").GetString();
                return token;
            }
        }

        private static string TokenFromCache(Uri web, ConcurrentDictionary<string, string> tokenCache)
        {
            if (tokenCache.TryGetValue(web.DnsSafeHost, out string accessToken))
            {
                return accessToken;
            }

            return null;
        }

        private static void AddTokenToCache(Uri web, ConcurrentDictionary<string, string> tokenCache, string newAccessToken)
        {
            if (tokenCache.TryGetValue(web.DnsSafeHost, out string currentAccessToken))
            {
                tokenCache.TryUpdate(web.DnsSafeHost, newAccessToken, currentAccessToken);
            }
            else
            {
                tokenCache.TryAdd(web.DnsSafeHost, newAccessToken);
            }
        }

        private static void RemoveTokenFromCache(Uri web, ConcurrentDictionary<string, string> tokenCache)
        {
            tokenCache.TryRemove(web.DnsSafeHost, out string currentAccessToken);
        }

        private static TimeSpan CalculateThreadSleep(string accessToken)
        {
            var token = new System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt.JwtSecurityToken(accessToken);
            var lease = GetAccessTokenLease(token.ValidTo);
            lease = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(lease.TotalSeconds - TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5).TotalSeconds > 0 ? lease.TotalSeconds - TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5).TotalSeconds : lease.TotalSeconds);
            return lease;
        }

        private static TimeSpan GetAccessTokenLease(DateTime expiresOn)
        {
            DateTime now = DateTime.UtcNow;
            DateTime expires = expiresOn.Kind == DateTimeKind.Utc ? expiresOn : TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeToUtc(expiresOn);
            TimeSpan lease = expires - now;
            return lease;
        }

        protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (!disposedValue)
            {
                if (disposing)
                {
                    if (tokenResetEvent != null)
                    {
                        tokenResetEvent.Set();
                        tokenResetEvent.Dispose();
                    }
                }

                disposedValue = true;
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            // Do not change this code. Put cleanup code in 'Dispose(bool disposing)' method
            Dispose(disposing: true);
            GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
        }
    }
}