Azure-docs: umm, docs re (just) managing users for mobile/web apps ?

[SogoGolf]

so we're fairly new to Azure and wanted to answer the question "where is/are the docs to tell us how to manage users for a mobile app". (create user, auth a user w/ uid/pwd, Facebook, google etc.

enter the can of worms!

it might just be me but i got totally confused as to exactly what we should use on Azure and what API's exist for user management/authentication for mobile apps. compare this to Google's Firebase which for authentication docs/API's is best in class at the moment. take a look here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/ios/setup?authuser=0. Those docs are clear, easy to find and to the point. + Lots of examples. I was assuming I'd see the same, but on Azure.

I'm assuming (took way too long to figure this out), Azure AD is the user management feature we need on Azure.

So when I eventually landed on this page => https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/active-directory-users-profile-azure-portal

I'm like oh, nice, finally. Then I see NOTHING in the left side panel with links to the mobile (and web) API's, how to use, examples etc.

I took the time to write this in detail for you as I'm certain other developers will have the same conundrum. Hope it helps.

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Document Details

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• ID: 278fd397-b3b7-5192-47ff-b5c9edfa44b4
• Version Independent ID: 9ca42ebd-4ff2-226f-8bae-74fc8973a825
• Content: What is Azure Active Directory? - Azure Active Directory
• Content Source: articles/active-directory/fundamentals/active-directory-whatis.md
• Service: active-directory
• GitHub Login: @eross-msft
• Microsoft Alias: lizross

[CHEEKATLAPRADEEP-MSFT]

@SogoGolf Thank you for your interest in Azure products and services. We are investigating and will update you shortly.

[shashishailaj]

@SogoGolf First of all thank you for trying out azure. We apologize for the inconvenience. The main page for Active Directory lists all the details about the azure active directory for anyone who would like to understand the same . https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/

You can go ahead and understand the Azure AD developer index here which contains links about almost all of the related content. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/index

You can check the new user on-boarding examples using the reference article here. Azure user CRUD operations can be done using Azure AD graph API or Microsoft Graph API. The following links are specifically the information that you would require.

Identity and Access Management Overview
Create User Operations
Working for Groups
Working with Devices

While we understand that for someone who is coming here for the first time , it may seem overwhelming and a lot however , I would suggest to approach it again with the information provided above and I am sure you would be able to find it easier to navigate.

This was the prime reason we open sourced the documentation so that we could reach our customers and help the with any query that they might have regarding the documentation. Please let us know in case of any further queries.

Hope the information helps.
Thank you.

[shashishailaj]

@SogoGolf Hope you are doing great . Just checking if you require any other details. Please tag me to your reply or open a new issue and we will surely help you on the same.

Thank you.

[SogoGolf]

Thanks for the info. I think there's a disconnect here which is possibly my fault. Whilst there is a SEA of information that you've listed above (including 2 versions, V1.0 and V2.0...) all I am looking for, is a service that lets us manage authentication of users to our mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Thats it.

Did you follow the link I provided to Firebase and look at how they present/provide their user authentication service and APIs for mobile/web ? That's what I (and no doubt 1000's of mobile devs that consider Azure) are looking for. With Azure AD "out of the box" for example, I can't even setup some user accounts if their email addresses are [email protected] without seeing an error along lines of "..is not a verified domain name in this directory". My point is, it feels like Microsoft are putting up as many barriers as possible to get started (for cloud based, native mobile apps user management). At its base level, this should be a quick and simple flow to get started/going.

[shashishailaj]

@SogoGolf My apologies for the confusion . I was not sure if you were looking for using Azure AD for your internal company users or for the consumers of your application . I took the liberty of checking your website and I now understand that you are running a business to consumer product and in your case Azure AD B2C would be the ideal solution.

Could you please check Azure AD B2C Documentation Located here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-in/azure/active-directory-b2c/ . Could you please check the Quickstart Guides and Step-by-Step tutorials as mentioned on the page and check if they met your requirements for now? I understand that the document organisation dos not seem as intuitive for you as compared to firebase. :) but we will have that addressed too.

Also I did check the firebase documentation link that you had shared and it surely is neat . However I think I was not able to understand the requirement on your case earlier . I believe Azure AD B2C page should give you clear direction on how to do that . Also Azure AD is a different product than firebase in the ways that it integrates with our IaaS and PaaS solutions for organisations. even though I am not an expert on firebase however it seems Firebase was designed only for Apps however Azure AD was designed with keeping the cloud enterprise in the mind , hence the documentation on azure side may seem exhaustive and we may not be able to compare the both in the same way . It would be an apples to orange comparison. While I agree with you that the arrangement of documentation of firebase seems pretty neat and organised but it would be hard to compare that exactly as is, with Azure AD documentation largely due to the fact that they both have different capabilities. And our documentation is designed to caters to all sets of audience hence sometimes it may not seem as organised and targeted to specific needs .

We certainly take your feedback into consideration and I am looping our document authors who can take your feedback internally and see how the document experience can be made better for our customers who are just into mobile app development and would like to use AzureAD for authenticating their users.

@eross-msft Could you please look into this feedback and internally check on how we can further improve the experience for mobile developers.

Thank you.

[eross-msft]

@shashishailaj Adding @CelesteDG. She's the person to look into updating and improving our developer-related experiences.

[SogoGolf]

thanks all / @shashishailaj . yep agree its apples/oranges in terms of product scope (Azure is serving way more use cases). to my mind Azure is a far superior offering its more just about getting mobile devs to the right place in all the MSFT authentication docs and then providing some simple API examples to get started. (we very much want to tie in Azure authentication with our apps use of CosmosDB, Functions etc. rather than go to Auth0 or Firebase or..). thanks for everyones help ill keep an eye on this ticket + take a look at Azure AD B2C

[CelesteDG]

reassign:@mmacy - Marsh recently took over ownership of our Azure AD B2C docs. Reassigning to him to review the feedback here as he works to build out our DevX story for B2C.

@mmacy - Please feel free to open a doc enhancement work item in ADO and link that to this issue. We may need to close this for now as you work on that longer work item and then go back to update this thread once the docs are in place. Thank you.

[mmacy]

Thanks @CelesteDG, yes, this is a high-priority effort we're actively pursuing. We have a several ADO work items tracking much of the work of adding clarity and ensuring accuracy in the B2C documentation for our customers (internal reference: #759742, #784218, #784219, #784552).

@SogoGolf, thanks again for the high-quality and detailed feedback. This effort will be ongoing and have a bit of a long tail, so for now we'll close this issue as it's certainly being addressed (but will take some time to reach any sort of completion). I can update the thread as we publish new content as part of this effort.

please-close

[mmacy]

@DiegoRamirez-MSFT can you add the B2C/subsvc label to this PR? Would like to track this one in our B2C queries.

[SogoGolf]

just as a related aside; please also connect with Amanda Chew @amchew. i spoke with her a week or so ago and the AppCenter team are working on a _great_ new feature to simplify Auth setup/flows (which are backed by Azure AD B2C, or, allow devs to use other 3rd party auth via AppCenter)

[mmacy]

Hi @SogoGolf, wanted to let you know that we've just published two new introductory articles in Azure AD B2C. The first should help customers determine whether the service is right for their scenario, and the second is a bit more in-depth overview of the technical aspects of the service:

1. What is Azure Active Directory B2C?

2. Technical and feature overview of Azure AD B2C

   If you take a look and have any comments or questions, your feedback is appreciated!

[SogoGolf]

Hi that sounds great, will take a look