For our new friends

Every app needs authentication and authorization. Logto is an Auth0 alternative designed for modern apps and SaaS products.

In this article, we will go through the steps to quickly build the Azure AD sign-in experience (user authentication) with Python and  Logto.

Prerequisites

• A running Logto instance. Check out the get started page if you don't have one.
• Basic knowledge of Python.
• A usable Azure AD account.

Create an application in Logto

In you browser, open a new tab and enter the link of Logto Admin Console.

Once the page is loaded, in the "Get Started" section click the View all link to open the application framework list page.

Choose your application type

In the opening modal, scroll to the "Traditional web" section or filter all the available " Traditional web" frameworks using the quick filter checkboxes on the left.

Click the "Flask" framework card to start creating your application.

Enter application name

Enter the application name, e.g., "Bookstore," and click "Create application."

🎉 Ta-da! You just created your first application in Logto. You'll see a congrats page which includes a detailed integration guide. Follow the guide to see what the experience will be in your application.

Integrate Logto SDK

tip

• The example uses Flask, but the concepts are the same for other frameworks.
• The Python sample project is available on our Python SDK repo.
• Logto SDK leverages coroutines, remember to use await when calling async functions.

Installation

Execute in the project root directory:

pip install logto # or `poetry add logto` or whatever you use

Init LogtoClient

First, create a Logto config:

client.py

from logto import LogtoClient, LogtoConfig

client = LogtoClient(
    LogtoConfig(
        endpoint="https://you-logto-endpoint.app",  # Replace with your Logto endpoint
        appId="replace-with-your-app-id",
        appSecret="replace-with-your-app-secret",
    ),
)

tip

You can find and copy "App Secret" from application details page in Admin Console:

Also replace the default memory storage with a persistent storage, for example:

client.py

from logto import LogtoClient, LogtoConfig, Storage
from flask import session
from typing import Union

class SessionStorage(Storage):
    def get(self, key: str) -> Union[str, None]:
        return session.get(key, None)

    def set(self, key: str, value: Union[str, None]) -> None:
        session[key] = value

    def delete(self, key: str) -> None:
        session.pop(key, None)

client = LogtoClient(
    LogtoConfig(...),
    storage=SessionStorage(),
)

See Storage for more details.

Implement sign-in and sign-out

In your web application, add a route to properly handle the sign-in request from users. Let's use /sign-in as an example:

flask.py

@app.route("/sign-in")
async def sign_in():
    # Get the sign-in URL and redirect the user to it
    return redirect(await client.signIn(
        redirectUri="http://localhost:3000/callback",
    ))

Replace http://localhost:3000/callback with the callback URL you set in your Logto Console for this application.

If you want to show the sign-up page on the first screen, you can set interactionMode to signUp:

flask.py

@app.route("/sign-in")
async def sign_in():
    return redirect(await client.signIn(
        redirectUri="http://localhost:3000/callback",
        interactionMode="signUp", # Show the sign-up page on the first screen
    ))

Now, whenever your users visit http://localhost:3000/sign-in, it will start a new sign-in attempt and redirect the user to the Logto sign-in page.

Note Creating a sign-in route isn't the only way to start a sign-in attempt. You can always use the signIn method to get the sign-in URL and redirect the user to it.

After the user makes a signing-out request, Logto will clear all user authentication information in the session.

To clean up the Python session and Logto session, a sign-out route can be implemented as follows:

flask.py

@app.route("/sign-out")
async def sign_out():
    return redirect(
        # Redirect the user to the home page after a successful sign-out
        await client.signOut(postLogoutRedirectUri="http://localhost:3000/")
    )

Handle authentication status

In Logto SDK, we can use client.isAuthenticated() to check the authentication status, if the user is signed in, the value will be true, otherwise, the value will be false.

Here we also implement a simple home page for demonstration:

• If the user is not signed in, show a sign-in button;
• If the user is signed in, show a sign-out button.

@app.route("/")
async def home():
    if client.isAuthenticated() is False:
        return "Not authenticated <a href='/sign-in'>Sign in</a>"
    return "Authenticated <a href='/sign-out'>Sign out</a>"

Test your integration

Open your Python app to test if the integration works. When you click the "Sign In" button, the page should be redirected to a Logto sign-in page, and you should be able to create a new account by entering username and password and complete the sign-in process.

Add Azure AD connector

To add a social connector, go to the "Connector" tab in the Admin Console, then click on "Social connectors". From there, click "Add social connector".

In the openning modal, select "Azure AD" and click "Next".

On the next page, you will see a two-column layout with the README content on the left and configuration on the right.

Feel free to follow the README file in place or read the following section to complete the configuration process. If you follow the in-place guide, you can skip the next section.

Set up Azure AD

Set up Azure AD in the Azure Portal

• Visit the Azure Portal and sign in with your Azure account. You need to have an active subscription to access Azure AD.
• Click the Azure Active Directory from the services they offer, and click the App Registrations from the left menu.
• Click New Registration at the top and enter a description, select your access type and add your Redirect URI, which redirect the user to the application after logging in. In our case, this will be ${your_logto_origin}/callback/${connector_id}. e.g. https://logto.dev/callback/${connector_id}. You need to select Web as Platform. The connector_id can be found on the top bar of the Logto Admin Console connector details page.
• If you select Single Tenant for access type then you need to enter TenantID, else you need to enter common as Tenant ID.

Configure your client secret

• In your newly created project, click the Certificates & Secrets to get a client secret, and click the New client secret from the top.
• Enter a description and an expiration.
• This will only show your client secret once. Save the value to a secure location.

Compose the connector JSON

• Add your App Registration's Client ID into logto json.
• Add your Client Secret into logto json.
• Add your App Registration's Tenant ID into logto json.
• Add your Microsoft Login Url into logto json. This defaults to "https://login.microsoftonline.com/" for many applications, but you can set your custom domain if you have one. (Don't forget the trailing slash)

{
  "clientId": "<client-id>",
  "clientSecret": "<client-secret>",
  "tenantId": "<tenant-id>", // use "common" if you did't select **Single Tenant**
  "cloudInstance": "https://login.microsoftonline.com/",
}

Config types

Name	Type
clientId	string
clientSecret	string
tenantId	string
cloudInstance	string

References

Web app that signs in users

Save your configuration

Double check you have filled out necessary values in the Logto connector configuration area. Click "Save and Done" (or "Save changes") and the Azure AD connector should be available now.

Enable Azure AD connector in Sign-in Experience

Switch to the "Sign-in experience" tab, then click the "Sign-up and sign-in" tab.

note

If it's the first time you enter the tab, you will see a quick introduction about Sign-in Experience and its basic configuration.

Select "None" for the "Sign-up identifier" to provide minimum sign-up effort for Azure AD sign-in, which may increase your conversion rate.

In the "Social sign-in" section, add "Add Social Connector" and choose "Azure AD". Then you should be able to see a button with text "Continue with Azure AD" in the preview section.

Finally, click "Save changes" on the bottom right corner.

Testing and Validation

Return to your Python app. You should now be able to sign in with Azure AD. Enjoy!

Further readings

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Learn more about identifying who's who and keeping your API secure.

🧑‍🚀 Manage users We know you care about user management and activities, as we also do.
Learn more about how to know your users and see the figures like DAU and MAU graphically.

🌐 Localization From one regional business to a global corporate, the willingness to offer the best user experience won't change.
You can change current language phrases or add a new language without friction.

🧑‍🎓 Customer IAM series Our serial blog posts about Customer (or Consumer) Identity and Access Management, from 101 to advanced topics and beyond.