PublicClientApplication Class

Definition

Namespace:

Microsoft.Identity.Client

Assembly:

Microsoft.Identity.Client.dll

Package:

Microsoft.Identity.Client v4.66.1

Abstract class containing common API methods and properties. For details see https://aka.ms/msal-net-client-applications

public sealed class PublicClientApplication : Microsoft.Identity.Client.ClientApplicationBase, Microsoft.Identity.Client.IByRefreshToken, Microsoft.Identity.Client.IPublicClientApplication

type PublicClientApplication = class
    inherit ClientApplicationBase
    interface IPublicClientApplication
    interface IClientApplicationBase
    interface IApplicationBase
    interface IByRefreshToken

Public NotInheritable Class PublicClientApplication
Inherits ClientApplicationBase
Implements IByRefreshToken, IPublicClientApplication

Inheritance

Object

ApplicationBase

ClientApplicationBase

PublicClientApplication

Implements

IApplicationBase IByRefreshToken IClientApplicationBase IPublicClientApplication

Examples

Here is an example of how to use PublicClientApplication with an authentication broker and caching.

// <PCABootstrapSample>
var pcaBuilder = PublicClientApplicationBuilder
                .Create(s_clientIdForPublicApp)
                .WithAuthority(GetAuthority())
                .WithLogging(Log, LogLevel.Verbose, true);

if(withWamBroker)
{
    IntPtr consoleWindowHandle = GetConsoleWindow();
    Func<IntPtr> consoleWindowHandleProvider = () => consoleWindowHandle;
    pcaBuilder.WithBroker(new BrokerOptions(BrokerOptions.OperatingSystems.Windows) { Title = "Only Windows" })
              .WithParentActivityOrWindow(consoleWindowHandleProvider);
}

Console.WriteLine($"IsBrokerAvailable: {pcaBuilder.IsBrokerAvailable()}");

var pca = pcaBuilder.WithRedirectUri("http://localhost") // required for DefaultOsBrowser
                .Build();

pca.UserTokenCache.SetBeforeAccess(notificationArgs =>
{
    notificationArgs.TokenCache.DeserializeMsalV3(File.Exists(CacheFilePath)
        ? File.ReadAllBytes(CacheFilePath)
        : null);
});
pca.UserTokenCache.SetAfterAccess(notificationArgs =>
{
    // if the access operation resulted in a cache update
    if (notificationArgs.HasStateChanged)
    {
        // reflect changes in the persistent store
        File.WriteAllBytes(CacheFilePath, notificationArgs.TokenCache.SerializeMsalV3());
    }

Remarks

Unlike ConfidentialClientApplication, public clients are unable to hold configuration time secrets, and as a result have no client secret.

The redirect URI needed for interactive authentication is automatically determined by the library. It does not need to be passed explicitly in the constructor. Depending on the authentication strategy (e.g., through the Web Authentication Manager, Authentication app, browser, etc.), different redirect URIs will be used by MSAL. Redirect URIs must always be configured in the Azure Active Directory blade in the Azure Portal.

Constructors

PublicClientApplication(String, String, TokenCache)	Obsolete. Constructor to create application instance. This constructor is only available for Desktop and NetCore apps
PublicClientApplication(String, String)	Obsolete. Constructor of the application.
PublicClientApplication(String)	Obsolete. Constructor of the application. It will use https://login.microsoftonline.com/common as the default authority.

Properties

AppConfig	Details on the configuration of the ClientApplication for debugging purposes. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
Authority	Gets the URL of the authority, or security token service (STS) from which MSAL.NET will acquire security tokens The return value of this property is either the value provided by the developer in the constructor of the application, or otherwise the value of the Microsoft.Identity.Client.ApplicationBase.DefaultAuthority static member (that is https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/) (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
ClientId	Obsolete. Gets the Client ID (also known as Application ID) of the application as registered in the application registration portal (https://aka.ms/msal-net-register-app) and as passed in the constructor of the application (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
Component	Obsolete. Identifier of the component (libraries/SDK) consuming MSAL.NET. This will allow for disambiguation between MSAL usage by the app vs MSAL usage by component libraries. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
IsSystemWebViewAvailable	Returns true if MSAL can use a system browser.
OperatingSystemAccount	A special account value that indicates that the current operating system account should be used to log the user in. Not all operating systems and authentication flows support this concept, in which case calling AcquireTokenSilent(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount) will throw an MsalUiRequiredException.
RedirectUri	Obsolete. The redirect URI (also known as Reply URI or Reply URL), is the URI at which Azure AD will contact back the application with the tokens. This redirect URI needs to be registered in the app registration (https://aka.ms/msal-net-register-app). In MSAL.NET, PublicClientApplication define the following default RedirectUri values: https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient for desktop (.NET Framework and .NET Core) applications msal{ClientId} for Xamarin iOS and Xamarin Android (as this will be used by the system web browser by default on these platforms to call back the application) These default URIs could change in the future. In Microsoft.Identity.Client.ConfidentialClientApplication, this can be the URL of the web application / web API. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
SliceParameters	Obsolete. Sets or Gets a custom query parameters that may be sent to the STS for dogfood testing or debugging. This is a string of segments of the form key=value separated by an ampersand character. Unless requested otherwise, this parameter should not be set by application developers as it may have adverse effect on the application. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
Users	Obsolete. In MSAL 1.x returned an enumeration of IUser. From MSAL 2.x, use GetAccountsAsync() instead. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-2-released for more details. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
UserTokenCache	User token cache. It holds access tokens, id tokens and refresh tokens for accounts. It's used and updated silently if needed when calling AcquireTokenSilent(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount) or one of the overrides of AcquireTokenSilent(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount). It is updated by each AcquireTokenXXX method, with the exception of AcquireTokenForClient which only uses the application cache (see IConfidentialClientApplication). (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
ValidateAuthority	Obsolete. Gets/sets a boolean value telling the application if the authority needs to be verified against a list of known authorities. The default value is true. It should currently be set to false for Azure AD B2C authorities as those are customer specific (a list of known B2C authorities cannot be maintained by MSAL.NET). This property can be set just after the construction of the application and before an operation acquiring a token or interacting with the STS. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)

Methods

AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, Prompt, String, IEnumerable<String>, String, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a given account, with the possibility of controlling the user experience, passing extra query parameters, providing extra scopes that the user can pre-consent to, and overriding the authority pre-configured in the application
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, Prompt, String, IEnumerable<String>, String)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a given account, with the possibility of controlling the user experience, passing extra query parameters, providing extra scopes that the user can pre-consent to, and overriding the authority pre-configured in the application
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, Prompt, String, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for an account with control of the UI prompt and possibility of passing extra query parameters like additional claims
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, Prompt, String)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for an account with control of the UI prompt and possibility of passing extra query parameters like additional claims
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The user will need to sign-in but an account will be proposed based on the provided account
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The user will need to sign-in but an account will be proposed based on the provided account
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Prompt, String, IEnumerable<String>, String, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a given login, with the possibility of controlling the user experience, passing extra query parameters, providing extra scopes that the user can pre-consent to, and overriding the authority pre-configured in the application
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Prompt, String, IEnumerable<String>, String)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a given login, with the possibility of controlling the user experience, passing extra query parameters, providing extra scopes that the user can pre-consent to, and overriding the authority pre-configured in the application
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Prompt, String, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a login with control of the UI prompt and possibility of passing extra query parameters like additional claims
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Prompt, String)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for a login with control of the UI prompt and possibility of passing extra query parameters like additional claims
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The interactive window will be parented to the specified window. The user will need to sign-in but an account will be proposed based on the loginHint
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The user will need to sign-in but an account will be proposed based on the loginHint
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, UIParent)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The interactive window will be parented to the specified window. The user will be required to select an account
AcquireTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>)	Obsolete. Interactive request to acquire token for the specified scopes. The user is required to select an account
AcquireTokenByIntegratedWindowsAuth(IEnumerable<String>)	Non-interactive request to acquire a security token for the signed-in user in Windows, via Integrated Windows Authentication. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-iwa. The account used in this overrides is pulled from the operating system as the current user principal name.
AcquireTokenByIntegratedWindowsAuthAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String)	Obsolete. Non-interactive request to acquire a security token for the signed-in user in Windows, via Integrated Windows Authentication. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-iwa. The account used in this overrides is pulled from the operating system as the current user principal name
AcquireTokenByIntegratedWindowsAuthAsync(IEnumerable<String>)	Obsolete. Non-interactive request to acquire a security token for the signed-in user in Windows, via Integrated Windows Authentication. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-iwa. The account used in this overrides is pulled from the operating system as the current user principal name
AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword(IEnumerable<String>, String, SecureString)	Obsolete. Non-interactive request to acquire a security token from the authority, via Username/Password Authentication. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-up for details.
AcquireTokenByUsernamePassword(IEnumerable<String>, String, String)	Non-interactive request to acquire a security token from the authority, via Username/Password Authentication. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-up for details.
AcquireTokenByUsernamePasswordAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, SecureString)	Obsolete. Non-interactive request to acquire a security token from the authority, via Username/Password Authentication. Available only on .net desktop and .net core. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-up for details.
AcquireTokenInteractive(IEnumerable<String>)	Interactive request to acquire a token for the specified scopes. The interactive window will be parented to the specified window. The user will be required to select an account.
AcquireTokenSilent(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount)	[V3 API] Attempts to acquire an access token for the account from the user token cache. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-acquiretokensilent for more details (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
AcquireTokenSilent(IEnumerable<String>, String)	[V3 API] Attempts to acquire an access token for the IAccount having the Username match the given loginHint, from the user token cache. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-acquiretokensilent for more details (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
AcquireTokenSilentAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount, String, Boolean)	Obsolete. [V2 API] Attempts to acquire an access token for the account from the user token cache, with advanced parameters controlling network call. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
AcquireTokenSilentAsync(IEnumerable<String>, IAccount)	Obsolete. [V2 API] Attempts to acquire an access token for the account from the user token cache. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
AcquireTokenWithDeviceCode(IEnumerable<String>, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>)	Acquires a security token on a device without a web browser, by letting the user authenticate on another device. This is done in two steps: The method first acquires a device code from the authority and returns it to the caller via the deviceCodeResultCallback. This callback takes care of interacting with the user to direct them to authenticate (to a specific URL, with a code) The method then proceeds to poll for the security token which is granted upon successful login by the user based on the device code information See https://aka.ms/msal-device-code-flow.
AcquireTokenWithDeviceCodeAsync(IEnumerable<String>, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>, CancellationToken)	Obsolete. Acquires a security token on a device without a web browser, by letting the user authenticate on another device, with possibility of cancelling the token acquisition before it times out. This is done in two steps: the method first acquires a device code from the authority and returns it to the caller via the deviceCodeResultCallback. This callback takes care of interacting with the user to direct them to authenticate (to a specific URL, with a code) The method then proceeds to poll for the security token which is granted upon successful login by the user based on the device code information. This step is cancelable See https://aka.ms/msal-device-code-flow.
AcquireTokenWithDeviceCodeAsync(IEnumerable<String>, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>)	Obsolete. Acquires a security token on a device without a web browser, by letting the user authenticate on another device. This is done in two steps: the method first acquires a device code from the authority and returns it to the caller via the deviceCodeResultCallback. This callback takes care of interacting with the user to direct them to authenticate (to a specific URL, with a code) The method then proceeds to poll for the security token which is granted upon successful login by the user based on the device code information See https://aka.ms/msal-device-code-flow.
AcquireTokenWithDeviceCodeAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>, CancellationToken)	Obsolete. Acquires a security token on a device without a web browser, by letting the user authenticate on another device, with possibility of passing extra query parameters and cancelling the token acquisition before it times out. This is done in two steps: the method first acquires a device code from the authority and returns it to the caller via the deviceCodeResultCallback. This callback takes care of interacting with the user to direct them to authenticate (to a specific URL, with a code) The method then proceeds to poll for the security token which is granted upon successful login by the user based on the device code information. This step is cancelable See https://aka.ms/msal-device-code-flow.
AcquireTokenWithDeviceCodeAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>)	Obsolete. Acquires a security token on a device without a web browser, by letting the user authenticate on another device, with possibility of passing extra parameters. This is done in two steps: the method first acquires a device code from the authority and returns it to the caller via the deviceCodeResultCallback. This callback takes care of interacting with the user to direct them to authenticate (to a specific URL, with a code) The method then proceeds to poll for the security token which is granted upon successful login by the user based on the device code information See https://aka.ms/msal-device-code-flow.
GetAccountAsync(String, CancellationToken)	Get the IAccount by its identifier among the accounts available in the token cache. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetAccountAsync(String)	Get the IAccount by its identifier among the accounts available in the token cache. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetAccountsAsync()	Returns all the available accounts in the user token cache for the application. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetAccountsAsync(CancellationToken)	Returns all the available accounts in the user token cache for the application. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetAccountsAsync(String, CancellationToken)	Get the IAccount collection by its identifier among the accounts available in the token cache, based on the user flow. This is for Azure AD B2C scenarios. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetAccountsAsync(String)	Get the IAccount collection by its identifier among the accounts available in the token cache, based on the user flow. This is for Azure AD B2C scenarios. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
GetUser(String)	Obsolete. In MSAL 1.x, return a user from its identifier. From MSAL 2.x, use GetAccountsAsync() instead. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-2-released for more details. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
IsBrokerAvailable()	Returns true if an authentication broker can be used. This method is only needed for mobile scenarios which support Mobile Application Management (MAM). In other cases, use WithBroker, which will fall back to use a browser if an authentication broker is unavailable.
IsEmbeddedWebViewAvailable()	Returns true if MSAL can use an embedded web view (web browser).
IsProofOfPossessionSupportedByClient()	Used to determine if the currently available broker is able to perform Proof-of-Possession.
IsUserInteractive()	Returns false when the application runs in headless mode (e.g., when SSH-d into a Linux machine). Browsers (web views) and brokers cannot be used if there is no UI support. For those scenarios, use AcquireTokenWithDeviceCode(IEnumerable<String>, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>).
Remove(IUser)	Obsolete. In MSAL 1.x removed a user from the cache. From MSAL 2.x, use RemoveAsync(IAccount) instead. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-2-released for more details. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
RemoveAsync(IAccount, CancellationToken)	Removes all tokens in the cache for the specified account. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)
RemoveAsync(IAccount)	Removes all tokens in the cache for the specified account. (Inherited from ClientApplicationBase)

Explicit Interface Implementations

IByRefreshToken.AcquireTokenByRefreshToken(IEnumerable<String>, String)	Acquires an access token from an existing refresh token and stores it, and the refresh token, in the user token cache, where it will be available for further AcquireTokenSilent calls. This method can be used in migration to MSAL from ADAL v2, and in various integration scenarios where you have a RefreshToken available. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-migration-adal2-msal2.
IByRefreshToken.AcquireTokenByRefreshTokenAsync(IEnumerable<String>, String)	Obsolete. Acquires an access token from an existing refresh token and stores it and the refresh token into the application user token cache, where it will be available for further AcquireTokenSilentAsync calls. This method can be used in migration to MSAL from ADAL v2 and in various integration scenarios where you have a RefreshToken available. (see https://aka.ms/msal-net-migration-adal2-msal2)

Extension Methods

IsEmbeddedWebViewAvailable(IPublicClientApplication)	Returns true if MSAL can use an embedded webview (browser).
IsSystemWebViewAvailable(IPublicClientApplication)	Returns true if MSAL can use a system browser.
IsUserInteractive(IPublicClientApplication)	Returns false when the program runs in headless OS, for example when SSH-ed into a Linux machine. Browsers (webviews) and brokers cannot be used if there is no UI support. Instead, please use AcquireTokenWithDeviceCode(IEnumerable<String>, Func<DeviceCodeResult,Task>) or AcquireTokenByIntegratedWindowsAuth(IEnumerable<String>)
IsProofOfPossessionSupportedByClient(IPublicClientApplication)	Used to determine if the currently available broker is able to perform Proof-of-Possession.