How to Secure Your Azure App Service With Twitter Authentication

Introduction

Please take a look at my previous articles about other types of authentication in Azure App Service which may help you to meet your application requirement.

Creating a Twitter Client App

Step 1

You need a Twitter account, to create a Twitter account go to twitter.com

Step 2

Go to Twitter for Developers and log in using your Twitter account

Step 3

Once logged in, from the top nav and select “Create an app” as below:

How To Secure Your Azure App Service With Twitter Authentication

Step 4

In the upcoming screen configure your app details like App Name, Description, Privacy Policy URL, App Logo.

It will also ask to fill website URL and Callback URL, fill it like below:

Website Url

https://<yourazureappname>.azurewebsites.net

Click the checkbox for “Enable Sign in with Twitter“

Callback URLs

https://<yourazureappname>.azurewebsites.net/.auth/login/twitter/callback

Note

Make sure you enter the above URL in lowercase format. This is because the website URL will be added as an authorized domain, it will be added as lowercase, and domain comparison will be done against the URL that we are adding now:

Step 5

At the bottom of the page “Tell us how this app will be used” is a required field. Type at least 100 characters in this section. Click the “Create” button in the upcoming popup also click the “Create” button.

Step 6

In the upcoming dashboard section, go to the “Keys and tokens” tab and copy the API Key and API Secret Key. We will need this later to configure in the Azure App Service.

Configuring Twitter Authentication in Azure App Service

Step 1

Step 2

Click on any of the app service applications on which you wish to enable Twitter authentication.

Step 3

In the upcoming properties pane look for Authentication/Authorization option like below. By default, Authentication is disabled, enable it using the toggler as you see in below screenshot.

Step 4

In the upcoming screen select “Twitter” as the authentication type. Enter the App Key and API Secret you obtained from the Twitter developer account and click theOK button.

Step 5

Now, in the authentication screen, choose “Action to take when the request is not authenticated” as “Login with Twitter” and click Save.

Step 6

Now that we are all set with the Twitter authentication, browse your application in the browser. You will be prompted to enter your Twitter credentials.

Once Twitter credentials are validated, you will get the below screen with the app information you configured in the Twitter developer account.

Click “Authorize App”, which will take you to your actual Azure App Service application.

I hope this article helps you to enable Twitter authentication on an Azure App Service. If you have any questions/issues about this article, please let me know in the comments.