IdentityServer .NET (How It Works For Developers)

Security is crucial in today's software architecture, particularly when it comes to user permission and authentication. As a top framework for implementing OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0, IdentityServer4 offers a reliable option for centralized authorization and authentication in distributed networks. When developers use IronPDF, a powerful C# library for PDF generation, alongside secure identity management, they can easily combine the two to create PDF documents that meet a variety of application requirements.

IdentityServer4 provides a modular, standards-based solution that simplifies identity management installation. It helps developers create a centralized identity provider that handles user authentication, access, token validation and issuance, and permission validation for a variety of services and apps. IdentityServer4 enables developers to create safe and intuitive authentication experiences by supporting many authentication methods, like username/password, social logins, and multi-factor authentication.

This tutorial will cover the C# integration of IdentityServer4 with IronPDF, showing how to use IdentityServer4 to create secure processes for authorization and authentication and how to use the user identities created to customize IronPDF's PDF document creation. We'll go over how to improve the security and functionality of your C# apps, from configuring IdentityServer4 as a centralized identity and authentication provider to integrating IronPDF for dynamic PDF production.

What is IdentityServer4 C#?

A well-liked open-source framework called IdentityServer4 is used in .NET and C# applications to perform identity management, authorization, and authentication. It is a flexible solution for securing web applications, APIs, and microservices because it complies with contemporary security protocols like OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0.

IdentityServer4 functions essentially as a centralized authentication server, handling user identification and permission management core identity, valid access token issuance, and credential validation. It gives programmers the ability to integrate federated authentication and single sign-on (SSO) into several applications and services, resulting in a safe and seamless end-user experience.

Features of IdentityServer4

SSO, or single sign-on

Without having to re-enter their credentials, users can access different applications or services with just one authentication.

Support for OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0

IdentityServer4 offers industry-standard protocols for secure authentication and authorization, providing compatibility with and support for a broad range of client applications and platforms.

Adaptable Setup

Developers can customize the security settings to match specific application requirements, as they have fine-grained control over how authentication and permission policies are configured.

Connectivity to ASP.NET Core

Authentication for ASP.NET Core web apps and APIs is simple to implement thanks to IdentityServer4's seamless integration with the framework.

Personalization and Adaptability

Due to the framework's high degree of extensibility and customization, developers can add new user stores, identity providers, test users, and authentication workflows as needed.

User Verification

IdentityServer4 gives developers the flexibility to select the authentication mechanism configuration that best fits their web application's requirements. These mechanisms include username/password, social logins (like Google, Facebook, etc.), and external identity providers (like Active Directory, Azure AD, etc.).

Policies for Authorization

Developers can create fine-grained authorization policies based on user roles, claims, or other criteria to ensure that only authorized users can access particular resources or perform specific actions within the application.

Management of Tokens

IdentityServer4 manages access tokens, token refresh tokens, and identity tokens, providing a secure method of user authentication and permission to access resources protected by the identity server.

Create and Config

To set up IdentityServer4 in a C# project in Visual Studio, you must follow these steps:

Creating a New Project in Visual Studio

After starting the Visual Studio application, select the "Create a new project" option, or choose File menu > Add > "New project". Next, pick "Asp.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)" after choosing "new project". This application will be used for PDF document generation in this tutorial.

New project option. Then select ASP.NET Core Web App" />

Select the file path and enter the project name in the corresponding text box. Next, pick the necessary .NET Framework by clicking the Create button, as shown in the screenshot below.

Decide which framework is needed and click the Create button.

The structure for the chosen application will be generated by the Visual Studio project. We're using ASP.NET MVC in this example. To write the code, we can either create a new controller or utilize the existing one to enter the code and build/run the program.

To test the code, add the necessary library.

Install IdentityServer4 Package

Using the .NET CLI or NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio, add the IdentityServer4 package to your project. Using the Package Manager Console or a terminal, type the following command to install the latest version of the package:

Install-Package IdentityServer4

Configure IdentityServer4 in .NET Core project

In your ASP.NET Core application, configure IdentityServer4 by adding the required authentication middleware and services to the Startup.cs file. An introductory code example of configuring IdentityServer4 is provided here:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;

public class Startup
{
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddIdentityServer()
            .AddInMemoryClients(Config.Clients)
            .AddInMemoryIdentityResources(Config.IdentityResources)
            .AddInMemoryApiScopes(Config.ApiScopes)
            .AddInMemoryApiResources(Config.ApiResources)
            .AddTestUsers(Config.Users);
    }

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
    {
        if (env.IsDevelopment())
        {
            app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        }
        app.UseIdentityServer();
    }
}

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;

public class Startup
{
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddIdentityServer()
            .AddInMemoryClients(Config.Clients)
            .AddInMemoryIdentityResources(Config.IdentityResources)
            .AddInMemoryApiScopes(Config.ApiScopes)
            .AddInMemoryApiResources(Config.ApiResources)
            .AddTestUsers(Config.Users);
    }

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
    {
        if (env.IsDevelopment())
        {
            app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        }
        app.UseIdentityServer();
    }
}

Imports Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder
Imports Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting
Imports Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
Imports Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting

Public Class Startup
	Public Sub ConfigureServices(ByVal services As IServiceCollection)
		services.AddIdentityServer().AddInMemoryClients(Config.Clients).AddInMemoryIdentityResources(Config.IdentityResources).AddInMemoryApiScopes(Config.ApiScopes).AddInMemoryApiResources(Config.ApiResources).AddTestUsers(Config.Users)
	End Sub

	Public Sub Configure(ByVal app As IApplicationBuilder, ByVal env As IWebHostEnvironment)
		If env.IsDevelopment() Then
			app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage()
		End If
		app.UseIdentityServer()
	End Sub
End Class

Configure Clients, Identity Resources, and API Resources

Configuring clients, identity resources (scopes), and API resources for IdentityServer4 is necessary. These configurations can be defined in a separate class, like Config.cs:

public class Config
{
    public static IEnumerable<Client> Clients { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<IdentityResource> IdentityResources { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<ApiScope> ApiScopes { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<ApiResource> ApiResources { get; set; }
    public static List<TestUser> Users { get; set; }
}

public class Config
{
    public static IEnumerable<Client> Clients { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<IdentityResource> IdentityResources { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<ApiScope> ApiScopes { get; set; }
    public static IEnumerable<ApiResource> ApiResources { get; set; }
    public static List<TestUser> Users { get; set; }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

By following these instructions, you can enable secure authentication and authorization in your ASP.NET Core apps by creating and configuring IdentityServer4 in a C# project.

Getting Started with IdentityServer4 with IronPDF

These instructions will guide you through configuring IdentityServer4 for secure authentication and authorization and using IronPDF to create PDF documents in a C# project. You will learn how to create a project based on a basic setup by following these steps.

What is IronPDF?

IronPDF is a feature-rich library for interacting with PDF documents in .NET applications. With its extensive feature set, users can create PDFs from scratch or from HTML content, as well as add, remove, or rearrange sections of existing PDF documents. IronPDF gives developers a robust API for producing, modifying, and converting PDF files, simplifying PDF handling in .NET applications.

Key Features of IronPDF

HTML to PDF conversion

With IronPDF, you can produce high-quality PDF documents by using HTML content, including JavaScript and CSS. This functionality is useful when creating PDFs from websites or dynamic content.

Modifying and enhancing PDFs

IronPDF allows you to alter PDF documents that already exist. You can combine multiple PDFs into one document, extract pages from a PDF, and add text, images, watermarks, or annotations.

Creating PDF on-the-fly

With IronPDF's API, you can programmatically add text, images, shapes, and other objects to newly created PDF documents. This enables dynamic PDF generation for invoices, reports, and other document-based outputs.

PDF Security

You can manage access and safeguard sensitive data by encrypting PDF documents with IronPDF and adding password protection.

PDF Forms

IronPDF enables users to create, fill out, and submit PDF forms, as well as populate data into form fields.

Text Extraction

IronPDF assists with text data manipulation, analysis, and search by extracting text information from PDF documents.

Conversion to Image Formats

IronPDF can convert PDF documents to common image formats, such as PNG, JPEG, and BMP, which is useful when images are needed instead of PDFs.

Install IronPDF

Use the .NET CLI or NuGet Package Manager to add the latest version of IronPDF to your project.

Install-Package IronPdf

Integrate IronPDF With IdentityServer4 C#

Set up the required services and middleware for IdentityServer4 in your Startup.cs file, as shown in the code above. Then create a new MVC Controller named PdfController.cs to handle PDF generation using IronPDF.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using IronPdf;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

[Authorize]
public class PdfController : Controller
{
    public async Task<IActionResult> GeneratePdf()
    {
        // Create IronPDF Renderer
        var renderer = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer();

        // HTML content to be converted to PDF
        string htmlContent = "<h1>Hello, IronPDF!</h1><p>This is a generated PDF document.</p>";

        // Convert HTML to PDF asynchronously
        var pdfDocument = await Task.Run(() => renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(htmlContent));

        // Return the PDF as a file
        return File(pdfDocument.BinaryData, "application/pdf", "example.pdf");
    }
}

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using IronPdf;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

[Authorize]
public class PdfController : Controller
{
    public async Task<IActionResult> GeneratePdf()
    {
        // Create IronPDF Renderer
        var renderer = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer();

        // HTML content to be converted to PDF
        string htmlContent = "<h1>Hello, IronPDF!</h1><p>This is a generated PDF document.</p>";

        // Convert HTML to PDF asynchronously
        var pdfDocument = await Task.Run(() => renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(htmlContent));

        // Return the PDF as a file
        return File(pdfDocument.BinaryData, "application/pdf", "example.pdf");
    }
}

Imports Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization
Imports Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc
Imports IronPdf
Imports System.Threading.Tasks

<Authorize>
Public Class PdfController
	Inherits Controller

	Public Async Function GeneratePdf() As Task(Of IActionResult)
		' Create IronPDF Renderer
		Dim renderer = New IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer()

		' HTML content to be converted to PDF
		Dim htmlContent As String = "<h1>Hello, IronPDF!</h1><p>This is a generated PDF document.</p>"

		' Convert HTML to PDF asynchronously
		Dim pdfDocument = Await Task.Run(Function() renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(htmlContent))

		' Return the PDF as a file
		Return File(pdfDocument.BinaryData, "application/pdf", "example.pdf")
	End Function
End Class

Integrating IronPDF with IdentityServer4 involves setting up secure user authentication and authorization with IdentityServer4 first, followed by using IronPDF to create PDF documents accessible only by authenticated users. In the provided code example, IdentityServer4 is configured in the Startup.cs file to handle user identity management through in-memory configurations and client credentials.

The PdfController is guarded with the [Authorize] attribute, ensuring only authorized users can access its operations. This controller uses an asynchronous method to render HTML content into PDF format using the IronPDF library. This PDF generation process involves creating a ChromePdfRenderer renderer, converting HTML content into a PDF document, and returning the PDF as a file response.

By embedding the PDF generation logic within a secured endpoint, only users authenticated by IdentityServer4 can initiate PDF generation, consequently combining strong security with dynamic document generation capabilities. This setup is particularly advantageous for applications requiring secure document handling, such as generating invoices, reports, or customized content based on user-specific information, while enforcing stringent access control through IdentityServer4.

Conclusion

In summary, the integration of IdentityServer4 with IronPDF in a C# project effectively merges robust security with dynamic PDF generation capabilities. IdentityServer4 offers a unified and standardized approach for managing user identities and access control across multiple applications and services, ensuring secure user authentication and authorization. Using IronPDF, developers can produce high-quality PDF documents that are only accessible to authenticated users, all based on verified user data.

This integration enhances application security and functionality, making it ideal for scenarios like generating invoices, reports, and personalized content requiring secure document processing. Overall, the combination of IdentityServer4 and IronPDF provides a compelling solution for developing secure, efficient, and user-oriented applications within the .NET framework.

When IronPDF and Iron Software technologies are integrated into your enterprise application development stack, IronPDF can provide feature-rich developer documentation and premium software solutions for customers and end users. This solid foundation will also facilitate project, backend system, and process enhancement.

IronPDF Suite, a combination of 9 different .NET API products, is available for a competitive licensing price! These technologies are excellent choices for modern software development projects due to their comprehensive documentation, active online developer community, and regular updates.