Microsoft Specifies End Dates for Some Azure Active Directory Developer Resources -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Specifies End Dates for Some Azure Active Directory Developer Resources

By Kurt Mackie
06/23/2020

Microsoft this week announced the end dates for Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) and the Azure Active Directory Graph API, which are both getting deprecated.

Developers have typically used those resources to make their applications work with Microsoft's identity provider scheme. However, Microsoft now favors the use of its Microsoft Identity Platform instead, as announced a year ago.

The Microsoft Identity Platform includes the use of the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) open source library instead of using ADAL. It also favors the use of the Microsoft Graph API instead of the Azure AD Graph API.

MSAL is better because it lets developers integrate capabilities such as conditional access and passwordless access into applications. The Microsoft Graph is better because it works across various Microsoft services, such as "Teams, Exchange and Intune," Microsoft's announcement argued.

Here are Microsoft's deadlines for the deprecations of ADAL and the Azure AD Graph API:

June 30, 2020: Microsoft stops adding new features to ADAL and Azure AD Graph, but technical support and security updates continue.
June 30, 2022: All support ends for ADAL and Azure AD Graph.

Microsoft's announcement described how apps based on these deprecated technologies will behave after June 30, 2022:

Apps using Azure AD Graph after this time will no longer receive responses from the Azure AD Graph endpoint. Apps using ADAL on existing OS versions will continue to work after this time but will not get any technical support or security updates.

Microsoft offers a document on migrating applications to MSAL here. There's another document overview on moving apps to the Microsoft Graph at this page.

Microsoft's announcement claimed that it will help developers identify their applications that need updating to MSAL and the Microsoft Graph if they create a support request within the Azure Portal.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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