Security and authentication

Authentication is used to keep corporate and network data secure and ensure that only valid, authenticated users can access private information. Your application or its users are required to authenticate their credentials through a qualified, compatible ArcGIS product such as ArcGIS Platform, ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise whenever attempting to:

• Access private user or corporate-owned information.
• Create, edit, or publish content.
• Access premium (payment-secured) web content or services.

You must implement an authentication method in order to grant your app's users access to secured resources. The authentication method you decide to implement might vary based upon the resources required by your application. Esri's preferred authentication methods are:

• API key: This unique identifier is used to authenticate a user, developer, or calling program to an API, although most typically used to authenticate a project rather than a human user.
• ArcGIS identity (OAuth 2.0): This method obtains user credentials and authentication through an ArcGIS platform sign-on, and the platform responds with an OAuth 2.0 access_token to the client app. The app uses this token in all subsequent requests to the platform. This is the recommended method, when used with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise.

API keys

API keys allow access to location services with a permanent key that can be restricted to specific services and included in public applications.

• Permanent access keys
• Used for accessing specific location services
• Restricted to specific referrer headers
• ArcGIS Developer accounts can use API keys to access ther own (read only) private content

ArcGIS identity

When your app requires access to user content or if you are distributing your app through ArcGIS Marketplace, you should implement OAuth 2.0 to obtain an ArcGIS identity. This allows individual users to authorize your app to use the content and services to which that user has been granted access.

• Users sign in with their ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise accounts via OAuth 2.0
• Tokens expire and require re-authentication or a refresh token call
• Tokens can be short-lived or long-lived depending on use cases
• Cross-functional: Can be used with browsers, devices, or servers
• Tokens can be used to access both:
  • Location services
  • Any ArcGIS Online or Enterprise content shared with the user

Choose an authentication method

The choice of which type of authentication to implement is mostly dependent upon the resources required by your application. Also consider the strengths and limitations of the API or SDK technology on which your application is built.

In general, we recommended that you use:

• API keys if your application needs to access location services from Esri.
• ArcGIS identity if users of your application will authenticate with their ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise accounts.

Your choice of authentication method is also affected by the API with which you build your application. ArcGIS APIs contain a built in IdentityManger or AuthenticationManager, which provide helper methods and patterns for implementing ArcGIS identity workflows.

What's Next?

For more information about Security and Authentication, see the Security and Authentication chapter.