Azure Directory Authentication doesn't work when the application is released while it works in Visual Studio

Question

I have the following connection string to connect to a Datamart server.

@"Server=datamartservername; Authentication=Active Directory Interactive; Encrypt=True; Database=dbname";

It works fine when I run the application in Visual Studio. I get the pop up window to authenticate as intended.

However, when I build the installer and release it to other users. The application crashes instead of opening up the pop up window to authenticate.

What would be the issue?

Answer 1

Your application needs to have an identity to be able to reach the Azure Services. this credential (App Registration/Service Principal) can be provided to the application in many different way, for example via the environment variables (AZURE_CLIENT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET, AZURE_TENANT_ID).

Do look at the DefaultAzureCredential class https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/azure.identity.defaultazurecredential?view=azure-dotnet