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Microsoft Entra Blog
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Announcing General Availability of Microsoft Entra External ID

LeventB's avatar
LeventB
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
May 01, 2024
I'm thrilled to announce that Microsoft Entra External ID, our next-generation, developer-friendly customer identity access management (CIAM) solution will be generally available starting May 15th. W...
Updated Apr 30, 2024
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Joined May 16, 2023
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Microsoft Entra Blog
Stay informed on how to secure access for employees, customers, and non-human identities, from anywhere, to multicloud and on-premises resources, with comprehensive identity and network access solutions powered by AI.
ty10002's avatar
ty10002
Copper Contributor
Jan 23, 2025

I have been using Azure AD B2C custom policies for over a year, and while the XML structure can be quite cumbersome, it does offer a level of customization. I have recently started evaluating Azure Entra External ID, which does not utilize XML but also lacks the flexibility of custom policies. Additionally, there seem to be many assumptions about how companies are expected to use this service.

I am trying to determine if it is possible to achieve the following with Azure Entra External ID:

  1. Dynamic Company Logo: We need to support dynamically changing the company logo based on client information. In B2C, we used custom HTML and backend APIs to generate the initial HTML dynamically. How can we accomplish this in Entra External ID?
  2. Adding Steps in User Flows: Is it possible to add additional steps to a user flow, similar to customizing the user journey in B2C?
  3. Third-Party Email/SMS Templates: In B2C, we faced limitations with customizing email and SMS templates, which led us to use API calls from policies to integrate with a third-party service. How can we handle this in Entra External ID?
  4. Custom UI with REST Calls: We explored the native SDK, but found limited information, primarily for Android and iOS. Can we make REST calls with our own custom UI? Are there any examples available for this?

My list of requirements is extensive, and I am looking for ways to accomplish these tasks through the Azure Entra admin portal.

The learning curve for Azure AD B2C has been quite steep, which is why we are considering a transition. Hard to train or hire someone to work on b2c.  If Azure Entra External ID does not offer the flexibility or ease of use we need, we may explore alternatives like AWS Cognito or Okta which we are trying to avoid.


Any feedback or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

  • SashaMars's avatar
    SashaMars
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Jan 29, 2025

    Hi there,

     

    Thanks a lot for your feedback and questions. Please, see my answers below in the same order.

    1. We don't support a dynamic header and footer at the moment. Could you, please share a couple examples of client information?
    2. It's not possible yet but we're actively working on it.
    3. Third-Party Email Providers support shipped to the public preview. Please, learn more here Configure a custom email provider for one time passcode send events (preview) - Microsoft identity platform | Microsoft Learn
    4. You can use the native authentication API to build a custom UI for web-hosted experiences. I'm not sure whether examples available for that.

    Feel free to reach out to me via Identity Advisors or directly if you have any questions. Also, it would be great to meet and chat with you.

    Thank you.

     

    Kind regards, 

    Sasha

    • ty10002's avatar
      ty10002
      Copper Contributor
      Feb 06, 2025

      Hi Sasha

      1)  For example, we provide a white-label solution to many of customers's users.   when those users login to the site, the customers would like their users to see thier company logos, not my company logo.   So, we have a mapping of the customer ids and customer logos.   so, in b2C, the initial url would have the info from the query parameters and then we extract the info in a custom policy and call an azure function to generate the html.

      2) ok, it has been a challenge that our UX would like to add steps to capture additional information or consent from users.  

      3) thanks

      4) it is good to hear if we want to build our UI with API, it is possible.  I have googled everywhere, and only found example in Andrloid or IOS sdk.  that's it..  nothing about the APIs, etc.   it would be good to add them to the sample area.

      Thanks a lot.