Security and authentication

ArcGIS supports secure access to location services and private data. It ensures that only valid, authorized users and services access protected information. In order to access secure ArcGIS resources, you need an access token. To get an access token, you need to choose a type of authentication and implement an authentication workflow in your app. The type of authentication you use will depend on the security and access requirements of your app.

There are three types of authentication that you can use to get an access token:

• API key authentication: grants a permanent token that grants your application access to ready-to-use services and, with an ArcGIS Developer account, private content.
• User authentication (formerly named user): grants a short-lived token, generated via OAuth 2.0, giving your application permission to access the content and services authorized to an existing ArcGIS user's account.
• App credential authentication: grants a short-lived token, generated via OAuth 2.0, authorizing your application to access ready-to-use services.

To make authenticated requests to services, you need to set the token parameter to an access token.

For more information, see Security and authentication in the Mapping APIs and location services guide.

Choose a type of authentication

The following considerations can help determine which type of authentication to implement:

• Access to resources—Your app can access ready-to-use services using an API key, User authentication, or App credential authentication. To access private data hosted in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise, or content that requires an ArcGIS Online subscription, your app needs an authenticated user to sign in with their account.

• User experience—If you don't want to make users log in, your app can access ready-to-use services using an API key or App credential authentication. In this case, users will not need to have an ArcGIS account in order to use your app.

• Usage charges—If you want service usage to be charged to the user's account, your app must request that the user log in. When using an API key or App credential authentication, all access to services from your app will be charged to your developer account.

You might also need to consider the level of security required for your app, how your app will be distributed, and your available ArcGIS products and accounts.

API key authentication

An API key is a permanent access token that grants your public-facing application access to specific, ready-to-use services, and, with an ArcGIS Developer account, private content, items, and limited client referrers.

Use API keys when you want to:

• Quickly write applications that consume ready-to-use services.
• Provide access to services without requiring users to sign in with an ArcGIS account.
• Use an access token that doesn't expire.

Use API keys in your app

An API key can be used to authorize access to specific ArcGIS Online services and resources from your app, as well as to monitor access to those services. An API key is created and managed in the ArcGIS developer dashboard and is tied to your ArcGIS account.

You can set an API key on the ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment, which will apply the key to all requests your app makes for ArcGIS Online services and resources.

You can also set an API key on any class that implements ApiKeyResource. When you set an API key for a specific class, it will override any key you may have set on ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment, enabling more granular usage telemetry and management for ArcGIS Online resources used by your app.

Classes that implement ApiKeyResource include:

• Basemap
• ArcGISSceneLayer
• ArcGISTiledLayer
• ArcGISVectorTiledLayer
• ServiceFeatureTable
• ExportVectorTilesTask
• LocatorTask
• GeodatabaseSyncTask
• ClosestFacilityTask
• RouteTask
• ServiceAreaTask
• ExportTileCacheTask

User authentication

User authentication is a set of authentication workflows that allow users with an ArcGIS account to sign into an application and access ArcGIS content, services, and resources. The typical authentication protocol used is OAuth2.0. When a user signs into an application with their ArcGIS account, an access token is generated that authorizes the application to access services and content on their behalf. The resources and functionality available depend on the user type, roles, and privileges of the user's ArcGIS account. This authentication type was previously known as Named user login and ArcGIS identity.

Services that your app accesses with user authentication will be billed to the authenticated user's ArcGIS account and its associated ArcGIS subscription. If your application will access your users' secure content in ArcGIS or if you plan to distribute your application through ArcGIS Marketplace, you must use user authentication.

Implement user authentication when you want to:

• Ensure users are signed in and authenticated with their own ArcGIS account.
• Use your app user's credits to pay for their private data, content, or service transactions.
• Limit the length of time users can be signed in to your app with a temporary token.
• Distribute your app through ArcGIS Marketplace.

App credential authentication

App credential authentication grants a short-lived access token, generated via OAuth 2.0, authorizing your application to access ready-to-use services, such as basemap layers, search, and routing.

Use app credential authentication when you want to:

• Access ready-to-use services with a more secure process and a short-lived token.
• Provide access to services without requiring users to have an ArcGIS account.

Authentication manager

This API contains an AuthenticationManager, available from the ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment, that manages all user authentication when your application connects to secured resources. It provides a central place to configure the authentication challenge handlers and credential stores.

The AuthenticationManager class allows you to manage authentication/security related tasks.

It emits the authenticationChallenge signal whenever an authentication or security issue is encountered anywhere in the API.

The following challenges can be raised by the AuthenticationManager:

• AuthenticationChallengeType::UsernamePassword - Challenges needing username and/or password authentication.
• AuthenticationChallengeType::OAuth - Challenges needing an OAuth authorization code.
• AuthenticationChallengeType::ClientCertificate - Challenges needing a client certificate to be provided.
• AuthenticationChallengeType::SslHandshake - Challenges needing a response to certain SslError errors, usually an untrusted host due to a self-signed certificate.

To handle authentication challenges in the UI automatically in QML, import the Esri.ArcGISRuntime.Dialogs module and declare the AuthenticationView component. After registering the AuthenticationManager type with QML, populate the authenticationManager property of the view with the AuthenticationManager::instance() exposed from C++ to QML. You can register the AuthenticationManager as a QML type with the following syntax:

1
qmlRegisterUncreatableType<AuthenticationManager>("Esri.TestNamespace", 1, 0, "AuthenticationManager", "AuthenticationManager is uncreateable");

To see a full example of using the AuthenticationView with the AuthenticationManager, please see the token authentication sample.

It also contains an instance of a CredentialCache which maintains a cache of credentials, in memory, that have been previously used to satisfy authentication challenges. This allows a credential to be reused where appropriate, and prevents unnecessary or duplicate challenges from being issued while accessing secure resources from the same security realm. Caching happens automatically if isCredentialCacheEnabled() is true.

What's Next?

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

Tutorials

Access services with OAuth 2.0

Samples

Portal user info

Integrated Windows authentication

Token authentication

Create and save a map