Create a new user in Azure Active Directory (B2C) with Graph API, using http post request

Question

I have previously been adding users programmatically using Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL), but now I need to define "signInNames" (= users email), and that doesn't seem to be possible with ADAL (please tell me if im wrong).

Now I'm trying to add a new user (local account) programmatically using HTTP POST, following the documentation on MSDN.

//Get access token (using ADAL)
var authenticationContext = new AuthenticationContext(AuthString, false);
var clientCred = new ClientCredential(ClientId, ClientSecret);
var authenticationResult = authenticationContext.AcquireTokenAsync(ResourceUrl, clientCred);
var token = authenticationResult.Result.AccessToken;


//HTTP POST CODE
const string mail = "[email protected]";
// Create a new user object.
var user = new CustomUser
{
    accountEnabled = true,
    country = "MS",
    creationType = "LocalAccount",
    displayName = mail,
    passwordPolicies = "DisablePasswordExpiration,DisableStrongPassword",
    passwordProfile = new passwordProfile { password = "jVPmEm)6Bh", forceChangePasswordNextLogin = true },
    signInNames = new signInNames { type = "emailAddress", value = mail }
};

var url = "https://graph.windows.net/" + TenantId + "/users?api-version=1.6";

var jsonObject = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(user);

using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", token);

    var response = client.PostAsync(url,
        new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(user).ToString(),
            Encoding.UTF8, "application/json"))
            .Result;

    if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
    {
        dynamic content = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(
            response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync()
            .Result);

        // Access variables from the returned JSON object
        var appHref = content.links.applications.href;
    }
}

But i have no success, getting this response:

{StatusCode: 400, ReasonPhrase: 'Bad Request', Version: 1.1, Content:....}

Any ideas what i should do? I succeeded using Powershell-script, but I need to do this in my C# app.

Answer 1

Did you grant the app sufficient permission to operate users? The create user REST API works well for me for the B2C tenant.

Here are the steps I tested:

1.Create the app via the PowerShell below

PowerShell:

$bytes = New-Object Byte[] 32
$rand = [System.Security.Cryptography.RandomNumberGenerator]::Create()
$rand.GetBytes($bytes)
$rand.Dispose()
$newClientSecret = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)

New-MsolServicePrincipal -DisplayName "My New B2C Graph API App" -Type password -Value 

2.Grant the app to User Account Administrator role.

Add-MsolRoleMember -RoleObjectId fe930be7-5e62-47db-91af-98c3a49a38b1 -RoleMemberObjectId 7311370c-dac3-4f34-b2ce-b22c2a5a811e -RoleMemberType servicePrincipal

3.Get the token for the app with client credential flow

POST: https://login.microsoftonline.com/adb2cfei.onmicrosoft.com/oauth2/token
grant_type=client_credentials&client_id={AppPrincipalId return by PowerShell}&client_secret={client_secret}&resource=https%3A%2F%2Fgraph.windows.net

4.Create the user with REST below:

POST: https://graph.windows.net/adb2cfei.onmicrosoft.com/users?api-version=1.6
authorization: bearer {token}
content-type: application/json

{
  "accountEnabled": true,
  "creationType": "LocalAccount",
  "displayName": "Alex Wu",
  "passwordProfile": {
    "password": "Test1234",
    "forceChangePasswordNextLogin": false
  },
  "signInNames": [
    {
      "type": "userName",
      "value": "AlexW"
    },
    {
      "type": "emailAddress",
      "value": "[email protected]"
    }
  ]
}

Answer 2

Thank you for your response Fei Xue, i believe i had the right permissions. What i did to solvem my problem.

First off i removed my own custom class "NewUser", then i downloaded this sample-project: https://github.com/AzureADQuickStarts/B2C-GraphAPI-DotNet/blob/master/B2CGraphClient/B2CGraphClient.cs to eliminate the risk that my code was wrong. I modified it to support my needs, then i created a simple JObject:

var jsonObject = new JObject
                        {
                            {"accountEnabled", true},
                            {"country", customer.CustomerBase.Company},
                            {"creationType", "LocalAccount"},
                            {"displayName", pendingCustomer.Email.Trim()},
                            {"passwordPolicies", "DisablePasswordExpiration,DisableStrongPassword"},
                            {"passwordProfile", new JObject
                            {
                                {"password", pwd},
                                {"forceChangePasswordNextLogin", true}
                            } },
                            {"signInNames", new JArray
                                {
                                    new JObject
                                    {
                                        {"value", pendingCustomer.Email.Trim()},
                                        {"type", "emailAddress"}
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        };

client = new B2CGraphClient(ClientId, ClientSecret, TenantId);
var response = await client.CreateUser(jsonObject.ToString());
var newUser = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<User>(response);

From B2CGraphClient.cs

        private async Task<string> SendGraphPostRequest(string api, string json)
    {
        // NOTE: This client uses ADAL v2, not ADAL v4
        var result = authContext.AcquireToken(Globals.aadGraphResourceId, credential);
        var http = new HttpClient();
        var url = Globals.aadGraphEndpoint + tenant + api + "?" + Globals.aadGraphVersion;

        var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, url);
        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", result.AccessToken);
        request.Content = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
        var response = await http.SendAsync(request);

        if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            var error = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            var formatted = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(error);
            //Console.WriteLine("Error Calling the Graph API: \n" + JsonConvert.SerializeObject(formatted, Formatting.Indented));
            Logger.Error("Error Calling the Graph API: \n" + JsonConvert.SerializeObject(formatted, Formatting.Indented));
        }
        Logger.Info((int)response.StatusCode + ": " + response.ReasonPhrase);

        return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    }

This finally solved all my problems, it was probably an format-error in the serialization of my NewCustomer-class, which then got rejected by the API.