---
title: "Authenticate Azure Mobile Services Apps with Everything using Auth0"
description: "Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS) is a really neat technology by Microsoft to get you started very quickly with simple mobile apps."
authors:
  - name: "Eugenio Pace"
    url: "https://auth0.com/blog/authors/eugenio-pace/"
date: "Mar 17, 2013"
category: "Identity & Security,Identity,SSO"
tags: ["microsoft"]
url: "https://auth0.com/blog/Authenticate-Azure-Mobile-Services-apps-with-Everything-using-Auth0/"
---

# Authenticate Azure Mobile Services Apps with Everything using Auth0



[Windows Azure Mobile Services](http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/) (WAMS) is a really neat technology by Microsoft to get you started very quickly with simple mobile apps. It's a _"Mobile Backend as a Service"_. It also provides a nice extensibility model for more advanced scenarios with server-side JavaScript.

WAMS already ships with support for single-sign-on with social identity providers (e.g Facebook, LiveID), but no support for enterprise providers: Google Apps, Office 365 and Active Directory; or even custom SQL user databases. Even for social providers, it currently doesn't allow finer grain control on what information the user has to consent to disclose.

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For Microsoft Accounts (Live ID), for example, WAMS will ask the user for the following rights: name, gender, display picture, contacts and friends. You might not need all these, and you might turn away customers by asking too much.

Auth0 addresses these two issues:

- You can connect to __any__ supported identity provider: social and enterprise
- You have __full control__ on what information to request from your users

![](https://images.ctfassets.net/23aumh6u8s0i/3PlSohd19T8Ct8Hrdv99Hv/a53c2d72fe83a7e0abbab96322bf68d7/auth0-wams-ad-others)

Enabling WAMS integration is as simple as entering the WAMS masterkey in Auth0 (so we can sign the token). That's it!

![Azure Mobile Services Authentication](https://images.ctfassets.net/23aumh6u8s0i/4kZd4JhaDRwt6G7dTbUT7D/58d57576eeaff25b27c55ceefe4ebeee/auth0-wams)

After enabling the add-on, Auth0 will generate JSON Web Token that you can then use to call WAMS endpoints.

This is how it works on a sample test app we wrote:

- John has an account with Fabrikam's Active Directory and is using an iPhone
- John opens an app to query for invoices (and endpoint on WAMS)
- John taps on __Login with Widget__
- Using the Auth0 helper library for iOS, the __Auth0 Login Widget__ is displayed

![iphone SSO](https://images.ctfassets.net/23aumh6u8s0i/756QLiDMNXuho6a4ZMPp7e/54726a86033dcbbae94fa69d970aad50/auth0-wams-ios1)

- John selects Active Directory for the list
- Auth0 sends John to AD for authentication
- Upon successful authentication, Auth0 returns a JWT (seen on the debug screen on top)
- The app calls the WAMS endpoint with the JWT

![iphone SSO](https://images.ctfassets.net/23aumh6u8s0i/MUhmYEZKSyOeDEPFsNXvk/f943894828cd82cc9b4e5a185042792d/auth0-wams-ios2)

The code behind the login process is very straight forward using the helper libraries we ship with __Auth0 SDK__:

	- (IBAction)loginWithWidget:(id)sender
	{
	    Auth0Client *client = [Auth0Client auth0ClientWithWidget:tenant clientId:clientId returnUrl:returnUrl];

    	[client showInViewController:self allowsClose:NO withCompletionHandler:^(BOOL authenticated) {
        	if (!authenticated) {
            	NSLog(@"Error authenticating");
        	}
        	else{
            	self.accessTokenView.text = [client.accessToken copy];
            	jwtToken = [client.jwtToken copy];
            	self.jwtTokenView.text = jwtToken;
        	}
    	}];
	}

All token negotiation is handled by the __Auth0Client__ class. Calling WAMS is equally simple: notice how we are just setting the authentication token to what Auth0 returned in the previous step. The rest of the code is just plain WAMS.

	- (IBAction)getInvoices:(id)sender
	{
    	MSUser *user = [[MSUser alloc] initWithUserId:@"eugeniop"];
    	user.mobileServiceAuthenticationToken = jwtToken;

	    MSClient *client = [MSClient clientWithApplicationURLString:@"https://auth0-tests.azure-mobile.net"];
    	client.currentUser = user;

    	MSTable * invoices = [client getTable:@"invoices"];

    	[invoices readWithCompletion:^(NSArray *items, NSInteger totalCount, NSError *error)
    	{
	        if(error)
	        {
	            NSLog(@"Error");
	        }
	        else
	        {
	            self.invoices.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Got %d invoices", [items count]];
	        }
    	}];
	}

>[Matias'](https://twitter.com/woloski) demo'ed this integration on his webcast on [CloudCover](http://blog.auth0.com/2013/03/03/Real-World-Windows-Azure-with-Auth0-Matias-on-CloudCover/). (see from minute 13 to 19).

[Try Auth0 yourself!](https://auth0.com)