Implementing the challenge handler in Windows 8.1 Universal and Windows 10 UWP applications

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Overview

Prerequisite: Make sure to read the CredentialsValidationSecurityCheck challenge handler implementation tutorial.

The challenge handler tutorial demonstrate a few additional features (APIs) such as preemptive Login, Logout, and ObtainAccessToken.

Login

In this example, UserLoginSecurityCheck expects key:values called username and password. Optionally, it also accepts a Boolean rememberMe key, which tells the security check to remember this user for a longer period. In the sample application, this is collected by a Boolean value from a checkbox in the login form.

The credentials argument is a JSONObject containing username, password, and rememberMe:

public override void SubmitChallengeAnswer(object answer)
{
    challengeAnswer = (JObject)answer;
}

You may also want to log in a user without any challenge being received. For example, you can show a login screen as the first screen of the application, or show a login screen after a logout, or a login failure. Those scenarios are called preemptive logins.

You cannot call the challengeAnswer API if there is no challenge to answer. For those scenarios, the Mobile Foundation SDK includes the Login API:

WorklightResponse response = await Worklight.WorklightClient.CreateInstance().AuthorizationManager.Login(String securityCheckName, JObject credentials);

If the credentials are wrong, the security check sends back a challenge.

It is the developer’s responsibility to know when to use Login, as oppposed to challengeAnswer, based on the application’s needs. One way to achieve this is to define a Boolean flag, for example isChallenged, and set it to true when HandleChallenge is reached, or set it to false in any other cases (failure, success, initialization, etc).

When the user clicks the Login button, you can dynamically choose which API to use:

public async void login(JSONObject credentials)
{
    if(isChallenged)
    {
        challengeAnswer= credentials;
    }
    else
    {
        WorklightResponse response = await Worklight.WorklightClient.CreateInstance().AuthorizationManager.Login(securityCheckName, credentials);
    }
}

Obtaining an access token

Because this security check supports the RememberMe functionality (as therememberMe Boolean key), it would be useful to check whether the client is currently logged in, when the application starts.

The Mobile Foundation SDK provides the ObtainAccessToken API to ask the server for a valid token:

WorklightAccessToken accessToken = await Worklight.WorklightClient.CreateInstance().AuthorizationManager.ObtainAccessToken(String scope);

if(accessToken.IsValidToken && accessToken.Value != null && accessToken.Value != "")
{
  Debug.WriteLine("Auto login success");
}
else
{
  Debug.WriteLine("Auto login failed");
}

If the client is already logged-in or is in the remembered state, the API triggers a success. If the client is not logged in, the security check sends back a challenge.

The ObtainAccessToken API takes in a scope. The scope can be the name of your security check.

Learn more about scopes in the Authorization concepts tutorial.

Retrieving the authenticated user

The challenge handler HandleSuccess method receives a JObject identity as a parameter. If the security check sets an AuthenticatedUser, this object contains the user’s properties. You can use HandleSuccess to save the current user:

public override void HandleSuccess(JObject identity)
{
    isChallenged = false;
    try
    {
        //Save the current user
        var localSettings = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings;
        localSettings.Values["useridentity"] = identity.GetValue("user");

    } catch (Exception e) {
        Debug.WriteLine(e.StackTrace);
    }
}

Here, identity has a key called user which itself contains a JObject representing the AuthenticatedUser:

{
  "user": {
    "id": "john",
    "displayName": "john",
    "authenticatedAt": 1455803338008,
    "authenticatedBy": "UserLogin"
  }
}

Logout

The Mobile Foundation SDK also provides a Logout API to logout from a specific security check:

WorklightResponse response = await Worklight.WorklightClient.CreateInstance().AuthorizationManager.Logout(securityCheckName);

Sample applications

Two samples are associated with this tutorial:

  • PreemptiveLoginWin: An application that always starts with a login screen, using the preemptive Login API.
  • RememberMeWin: An application with a Remember Me checkbox. The user can bypass the login screen the next time the application is opened.

Both samples use the same UserLoginSecurityCheck from the SecurityCheckAdapters adapter Maven project.

Click to download the SecurityCheckAdapters Maven project.
Click to download the Remember Me Win8 project.
Click to download the Remember Me Win10 project.
Click to download the PreemptiveLogin Win8 project.
Click to download the PreemptiveLoginWin10 project.

Sample usage

Follow the sample’s README.md file for instructions. The username/password for the app must match, i.e. “john”/”john”.

sample application

Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.
Last modified on January 10, 2017