How do I authenticate to CRM Online using a non-interactive user? - dynamics-crm-online

Question

I'm creating a console application that needs to access data in CRM Online 2016. This will run as a scheduled job and not interactively. It appears that I need to use OAuth for authentication.
I've already done the following:
I created a non-interactive user in CRM for the purpose of this integration. - I've already registered my app with Azure AD and have the Client Id.
What I can't figure out is how to authenticate to the web services. I was led to this MSDN article:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg327838.aspx
It shows how to authenticate but the example it shows causes a window to pop up asking the user to type a user/password. This won't work for me since this application will not be run interactively. I've looked everywhere but have not been able to find any documentation that shows me how to authenticate without having that window pop up.
It seems like I should be able to use AuthenticationContext.AcquireTokenByAuthorizationCode but I can't find any good examples for how that should be used.
Any direction is much appreciated!

Answer 1

Add a NuGet Reference to Microsoft.CrmSdk.XrmTooling.CoreAssembly.
Include the connection string in your app config (can include username and password as well)
<connectionStrings>
<add name="CrmService" connectionString="Url=https://UniqueOrgName.crm.dynamics.com;AuthType=Office365;"/>
</connectionStrings>
Call this code:
private static CrmServiceClient CreateCrmConnection(string userName, string password)
{
var url = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["CrmService"].ConnectionString;
var client = new CrmServiceClient(string.Format("{0}UserName={1};Password={2};", url, userName, password));
if (client.IsReady)
{
return client;
}
else
{
// Display the last error.
Console.WriteLine("Error occurred: {0}", client.LastCrmError);
// Display the last exception message if any.
Console.WriteLine(client.LastCrmException.Message);
Console.WriteLine(client.LastCrmException.Source);
Console.WriteLine(client.LastCrmException.StackTrace);
throw new Exception("Unable to Connect to CRM");
}
}

Answer 2

If you have a properly configured app registration with ClientId and ClientSecret, along with a few other organization specific variables, you can authenticate with Azure Active Directory (AAD) to acquire an oauth token and construct an OrganizationWebProxyClient. I've never found a complete code example of doing this, but I have developed the following for my own purposes. Note that the token you acquire has an expiry of 1 hr.
internal class ExampleClientProvider
{
// Relevant nuget packages:
// <package id="Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreAssemblies" version="9.0.2.9" targetFramework="net472" />
// <package id="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory" version="4.5.1" targetFramework="net461" />
// Relevant imports:
// using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory;
// using Microsoft.Crm.Sdk.Messages;
// using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk;
// using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client;
// using Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.WebServiceClient;
private const string TenantId = "<your aad tenant id>"; // from your app registration overview "Directory (tenant) ID"
private const string ClientId = "<your client id>"; // from your app registration overview "Application (client) ID"
private const string ClientSecret = "<your client secret>"; // secret generated in step 1
private const string LoginUrl = "https://login.microsoftonline.com"; // aad login url
private const string OrganizationName = "<your organization name>"; // check your dynamics login url, e.g. https://<organization>.<region>.dynamics.com
private const string OrganizationRegion = "<your organization region>"; // might be crm for north america, check your dynamics login url
private string GetServiceUrl()
{
return $"{GetResourceUrl()}/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc/web";
}
private string GetResourceUrl()
{
return $"https://{OrganizationName}.api.{OrganizationRegion}.dynamics.com";
}
private string GetAuthorityUrl()
{
return $"{LoginUrl}/{TenantId}";
}
public async Task<OrganizationWebProxyClient> CreateClient()
{
var context = new AuthenticationContext(GetAuthorityUrl(), false);
var token = await context.AcquireTokenAsync(GetResourceUrl(), new ClientCredential(ClientId, ClientSecret));
return new OrganizationWebProxyClient(new Uri(GetServiceUrl()), true)
{
HeaderToken = token.AccessToken,
SdkClientVersion = "9.1"
};
}
public async Task<OrganizationServiceContext> CreateContext()
{
var client = await CreateClient();
return new OrganizationServiceContext(client);
}
public async Task TestApiCall()
{
var context = await CreateContext();
// send a test request to verify authentication is working
var response = (WhoAmIResponse) context.Execute(new WhoAmIRequest());
}
}
See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/54775571/185200 if you're encountering access denied issues, and verify you've properly configured / authenticated the app.