ImportExport Service with ADFS

Using the ImportExport service with ADFS authentication is quite straight forward, if we use the Basic Authenticator. This one exposes a Basic authentication scheme, while communicating with the ADFS server in the background. Once a user is successfully authenticated, it creates a Thread and HttpContext security contexts, so that the following modules in the .NET request processing pipeline execute in the new security context.

As such, our client can define a Basic auth security using HTTPS transport and it will be able to connect to the service. This is the same mechanism the Content Porter application is using (i.e. Basic auth).

App.config

The .NET Console application I use as test client uses generated service proxy classes. The configuration presented below defines the endpoint to connect to and a simple HTTPS Basic auth transport.

<system.serviceModel>
  <bindings>
    <basicHttpBinding>
      <binding name="basicHttp">
        <security mode="Transport">
          <transport clientCredentialType="Basic"/>
        </security>
      </binding>
    </basicHttpBinding>
  </bindings>

  <client>
    <endpoint address="https://web85.playground/webservices/ImportExportService201601.svc/basicHttp"
      binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="basicHttp"
      contract="MyImportExportService.IImportExportService" name="basicHttp" />
  </client>
</system.serviceModel>

Client Code

The client code creates an ImportExportServiceClient which uses the endpoint basicHttp defined in the .config file.

The communication is encrypted using HTTPS and credentials are sent inside the encrypted channel using Basic auth. The HTTP module Basic Authenticator handles the ADFS authentication and tokens and creates the right HttpContext and Thread security principals, so that by the time the request reaches the ImportExport service, it is already authenticated.

public Example()
{
    Console.WriteLine("ImportExport Example");

    using (var service = new ImportExportServiceClient("basicHttp"))
    {
        service.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName = username;
        service.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password = password;

        Console.WriteLine("Test Connection: {0}", service.TestConnection());
    }
}