Getting started with Azure AD B2C

Azure Active Directory B2C (Azure AD B2C) is a cloud-based customer identity and access management service that enables businesses to manage customer identities and access to their applications and services. Azure AD B2C provides a range of features and capabilities that make it an attractive solution for businesses looking to manage their customer identities across multiple applications and services.

Prerequisites

Before getting started with Azure AD B2C, businesses will need to have an Azure account. If you don’t have an Azure account, you can sign up for a free trial account by visiting the Azure website.

Creating an Azure AD B2C tenant

To get started with Azure AD B2C, businesses will need to create an Azure AD B2C tenant. An Azure AD B2C tenant is a dedicated instance of Azure AD B2C that is used to manage customer identities and access to applications and services.

To create an Azure AD B2C tenant, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal using an account that has permission to create an Azure AD B2C tenant.
2. Click on “Create a resource” in the left-hand menu.
3. Search for “Azure Active Directory B2C” and select it from the search results.
4. Click on the “Create” button to start creating a new Azure AD B2C tenant.
5. In the “Basics” tab, enter a name for the Azure AD B2C tenant and select a subscription, resource group, and location.
6. In the “Identity providers” tab, select the identity providers that you want to use for authentication, such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google, or Twitter.
7. In the “User flows” tab, select the user flows that you want to use for sign-up and sign-in processes.
8. Click on the “Create” button to create the Azure AD B2C tenant.

Configuring authentication methods

Once an Azure AD B2C tenant has been created, businesses can start configuring their authentication methods. This includes setting up identity providers, such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google, or Twitter, that customers can use to sign in to their applications and services.

To configure authentication methods, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the Azure AD B2C tenant that you want to configure.
2. Click on “Identity providers” in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on “Add” to add a new identity provider.
4. Select the identity provider that you want to use and follow the prompts to set it up.
5. Repeat these steps for any additional identity providers that you want to use.

Defining custom attributes

Azure AD B2C allows businesses to define custom attributes for customer profiles. These attributes can be used to store additional information about customers, such as their preferences, interests, or demographic information.

To define custom attributes, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the Azure AD B2C tenant that you want to configure.
2. Click on “User attributes” in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on “Add” to add a new user attribute.
4. Enter a name for the user attribute and select a data type, such as string, boolean, or integer.
5. Click on “Create” to create the user attribute.
6. Repeat these steps for any additional custom attributes that you want to define.

Configuring email templates

Azure AD B2C allows businesses to configure email templates for customer communications, such as sign-up confirmation emails, password reset emails, and email verification emails.

To configure email templates, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the Azure AD B2C tenant that you want to configure.
2. Click on “User flows” in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on the user flow that you want to configure, such as “Sign-up and sign-in.”
4. Click on the “Emails” tab.
5. Click on “Customize” to customize the email templates.
6. Use the visual editor to customize the email templates, including the subject line, message body, and formatting.
7. Click on “Save” to save your changes.

Creating applications

Once Azure AD B2C has been configured, businesses can start creating applications that will use Azure AD B2C for authentication and authorization. An application can be a web application, a mobile application, or a single-page application.

To create an application, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the Azure AD B2C tenant that you want to configure.
2. Click on “App registrations” in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on “New registration” to create a new application registration.
4. Enter a name for the application and select the type of application, such as web or mobile.
5. Enter the redirect URI for the application, which is the URI where Azure AD B2C will redirect the user after authentication.
6. Click on “Register” to register the application.
7. Note down the application ID and the directory ID, which will be needed to configure the application.

Configuring applications

Once an application has been created, businesses can configure it to use Azure AD B2C for authentication and authorization.

To configure an application, businesses can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to the Azure AD B2C tenant that you want to configure.
2. Click on “App registrations” in the left-hand menu.
3. Click on the application that you want to configure.
4. Click on “Authentication” in the left-hand menu.
5. Under “Supported account types,” select “Accounts in any identity provider or organizational directory (for authenticating users with user flows).”
6. Under “Redirect URIs,” add the redirect URIs for the application.
7. Under “Implicit grant,” select “Access tokens” and “ID tokens.”
8. Click on “Save” to save the changes.

Conclusion

Azure AD B2C provides businesses with a powerful and flexible platform for managing customer identities and access to their applications and services. By following the steps outlined in this article, businesses can get started with Azure AD B2C and begin reaping the benefits of a secure and reliable identity and access management solution.