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Custom policies are configuration files that define the behavior of your Azure AD B2C tenant. Whereas **built-in policies** are predefined in the Azure AD B2C portal for the most common identity tasks, custom policies can be fully edited by an identity developer to complete a near unlimited number of tasks. Read on to determine if custom policies are right for you and your identity scenario.
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Custom policies are configuration files that define the behavior of your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) B2C tenant. Built-in policies are predefined in the Azure AD B2C portal for the most common identity tasks. Custom policies can be fully edited by an identity developer to complete many different tasks.
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## Comparing built-in policies and custom policies
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|| Built-in policies | Custom policies |
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|-|-------------------|-----------------|
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|Target users | All app developers with or without identity expertise | Identity pros: systems integrators, consultants, and in-house identity teams. They are comfortable with OpenIDConnect flows, and understand identity providers and claims-based authentication |
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|Configuration method | Azure portal with a user-friendly UI| Directly editing XML files and then uploading to the Azure portal |
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|UI customization | Full UI customization, including HTML, CSS, and javascript support(requires custom domain)<br><br>Multilanguage support with Custom strings | Same |
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| Attribute customization | Standard and custom attributes | Same |
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|Token and session management | Custom token and multiple session options | Same |
|Identity Tasks (examples) | Sign-up or Sign-in with local and many social accounts<br><br>Self-Service Password Reset<br><br>Profile Edit<br><br>Multi-Factor Auth scenarios<br><br>Customize Tokens and sessions<br><br>Access Token flows | Complete the same tasks as built-in policies using custom identity providers or use custom scopes<br><br>Provision user in another system at the time of registration<br><br>Send a welcome email using your own email service provider<br><br>Use a user store outside B2C<br><br>Validate user provided information with a trusted system via API |
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|Target users | All application developers with or without identity expertise.| Identity pros, systems integrators, consultants, and in-house identity teams. They are comfortable with OpenIDConnect flows and understand identity providers and claims-based authentication.|
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|Configuration method | Azure portal with a user-friendly user-interface (UI).| Directly editing XML files and then uploading to the Azure portal.|
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|UI customization | Full UI customization including HTMLand CSS.<br><br>Multilanguage support with Custom strings.| Same |
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| Attribute customization | Standard and custom attributes.| Same |
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|Token and session management | Custom token and multiple session options.| Same |
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|Identity Providers| Predefined local or social provider. |Standards-based OIDC, OAUTH, and SAML.|
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|Identity Tasks | Sign-up or sign-in with local or many social accounts.<br><br>Self-service password reset.<br><br>Profile edit.<br><br>Multi-Factor Authentication.<br><br>Customize tokens and sessions.<br><br>Access token flows.| Complete the same tasks as built-in policies using custom identity providers or use custom scopes.<br><br>Provision a user account in another system at the time of registration.<br><br>Send a welcome email using your own email service provider.<br><br>Use a user store outside Azure AD B2C.<br><br>Validate user provided information with a trusted system by using an API.|
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## Policy files
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A custom policy is represented as one or several XML-formatted files that refer to each other in a hierarchical chain. The XML elements define: Claims schema, claims transformations, content definitions, claims providers/technical profiles, and User journey orchestration steps, among other elements.
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We recommend the use of three types of policy files:
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-**A BASE file**, which contains most of the definitions and for which Azure provides a complete sample. We recommend you make a minimum number of changes to this file to help with troubleshooting, and long-term maintenance of your policies
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-**an EXTensions file** that holds the unique configuration changes for your tenant
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-**a Relying Party (RP) file** that is the single task-focused file that is invoked directly by the application or service (aka Relying Party). Read the article on Policy file definitions for more information. Each unique task requires its own RP and depending on branding requirements the number might be "total of applications x total number of use cases."
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Built-in policies in Azure AD B2C follow the three-file pattern depicted above, but the developer only sees the Relying Party (RP) file, while the portal makes changes in the background to the EXTensions file.
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## Core concepts you should know when using custom policies
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### Azure Active Directory B2C
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Azure’s customer identity and access management (CIAM) service. The service includes:
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These three types of policy files are used:
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1. A user directory in the form of a special-purpose Azure Active Directory accessible via Microsoft Graph and which holds user data for both local accounts and federated accounts
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2. Access to the **Identity Experience Framework**that orchestrates trust between users and entities and passes claims between them to complete an identity/access management task
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3. A security token service (STS) issuing ID tokens, refresh tokens, and access tokens (and equivalent SAML assertions) and validating them to protect resources.
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-**Base file** - contains most of the definitions. It is recommended that you make a minimum number of changes to this file to help with troubleshooting, and long-term maintenance of your policies.
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-**Extensions file**- holds the unique configuration changes for your tenant.
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-**Relying Party (RP) file** - The single task-focused file that is invoked directly by the application or service (also, known as a Relying Party). Each unique task requires its own RP and depending on branding requirements, the number might be "total of applications x total number of use cases."
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Azure AD B2C interacts with identity providers, users, other systems, and with the local user directory in sequence to achieve an identity task (for example login a user, register a new user, reset a password). The underlying platform that establishes multi-party trust and executes these steps is called the Identity Experience Framework and a policy (also called a user journey or a Trust framework policy) explicitly defines the actors, the actions, the protocols, and the sequence of steps to complete.
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Built-in policies in Azure AD B2C follow the three-file pattern depicted above, but the developer only sees the RP file, while the Azure portal makes changes in the background to the extensions file.
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### Identity Experience Framework
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##Custom policy core concepts
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A fully configurable, policy-driven, cloud-based Azure platform that orchestrates trust between entities (broadly Claims Providers) in standard protocol formats such as OpenIDConnect, OAuth, SAML, WSFed, and a few non-standard ones (for example REST API-based system-to-system claims exchanges). The I2E creates user-friendly, white-labeled experiences that support HTML, CSS, and javascript. Today, the Identity Experience Framework is available only in the context of the Azure AD B2C service and prioritized for tasks related to CIAM.
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The customer identity and access management (CIAM) service in Azure includes:
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### Built-in policies
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- A user directory that is accessible by using Microsoft Graph and which holds user data for both local accounts and federated accounts.
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- Access to the **Identity Experience Framework** that orchestrates trust between users and entities and passes claims between them to complete an identity or access management task.
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- A security token service (STS) that issues ID tokens, refresh tokens, and access tokens (and equivalent SAML assertions) and validates them to protect resources.
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Predefined configuration files that direct the behavior of Azure AD B2C to perform the most commonly used identity tasks (that is, user registration, sign in, password reset) and interact with trusted parties whose relationship is also predefined in Azure AD B2C (for example Facebook identity provider, LinkedIn, Microsoft Account, Google accounts). In the future, built-in policies may also provide for customization of identity providers that are typically in the enterprise realm such as Azure Active Directory Premium, Active Directory/ADFS, Salesforce ID Provider etc.
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Azure AD B2C interacts with identity providers, users, other systems, and with the local user directory in sequence to achieve an identity task. For example, sign in a user, register a new user, or reset a password. The Identity Experience Framework and a policy (also called a user journey or a trust framework policy) establishes multi-party trust and explicitly defines the actors, the actions, the protocols, and the sequence of steps to complete.
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The Identity Experience Framework is a fully configurable, policy-driven, cloud-based Azure platform that orchestrates trust between entities in standard protocol formats such as OpenIDConnect, OAuth, SAML, WSFed, and a few non-standard ones, for example REST API-based system-to-system claims exchanges. The framework creates user-friendly, white-labeled experiences that support HTML and CSS.
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### Custom policies
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Configuration files that define the behavior of Identity Experience Framework in your Azure AD B2C tenant. A custom policy is accessible as one or several XML files (see Policy Files definitions) that are executed by the Identity Experience Framework when invoked by a relying party (for example an application). Custom policies can be directly edited by an identity developer to complete a near unlimited number of tasks. Developers configuring custom policies must define the trusted relationships in careful detail to include metadata endpoints, exact claims exchange definitions, and configure secrets, keys, and certificates as needed by each identity provider.
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## Policy File Definitions for Identity Experience Framework trust frameworks
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### Policy Files
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A custom policy is represented as one or several XML-formatted files that refer to each other in a hierarchical chain. The XML elements define: Claims schema, claims transformations, content definitions, claims providers/technical profiles, and user journey orchestration steps, among other elements. We recommend the use of three types of policy files:
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-**A BASE file** contains most of the definitions and for which Azure provides a complete sample. We recommend you make a minimum number of changes to this file to help with troubleshooting, and long-term maintenance of your policies
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-**an EXTensions file** that holds the unique configuration changes for your tenant
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-**a Relying Party (RP) file** is the single task-focused file that is invoked directly by the application or service (aka Relying Party). Read the article on Policy file definitions for more information. Each unique task requires its own RP and depending on branding requirements the number might be "total of applications x total number of use cases".
| BASE |TrustFrameworkBase.xml<br><br>Mytenant.onmicrosoft.com-B2C-1A_BASE1.xml | Includes the core claims schema, claims transformations, claims providers, and user journeys configured by Microsoft<br><br>Make minimal changes to this file | None |
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| Extension (EXT) | TrustFrameworkExtensions.xml<br><br>Mytenant.onmicrosoft.com-B2C-1A_EXT.xml | Consolidate your changes to the BASE file here<br><br>Modified claims providers<br><br>Modified user journeys<br><br>Your own custom schema definitions | BASE file |
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| Relying Party (RP) | B2C_1A_sign_up_sign_in.xml| Change token shape and session settings here| Extensions(EXT) file |
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A custom policy is represented as one or several XML-formatted files that refer to each other in a hierarchical chain. The XML elements define the claims schema, claims transformations, content definitions, claims providers, technical profiles, and user journey orchestration steps, among other elements. A custom policy is accessible as one or several XML files that are executed by the Identity Experience Framework when invoked by a relying party. Developers configuring custom policies must define the trusted relationships in careful detail to include metadata endpoints, exact claims exchange definitions, and configure secrets, keys, and certificates as needed by each identity provider.
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### Inheritance model
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When an application calls the RP Policy file, the Identity Experience Framework in B2C will add all the elements from BASE, then from EXTENSIONS, and lastly from the RP policy file to assemble the current policy in effect. Elements of the same type and name in the RP file will override those in the EXTENSIONS, and EXTENSIONS overrides BASE.
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**Built-in policies** in Azure AD B2C follow the 3-file pattern depicted above, but the developer only sees the Relying Party (RP) file, while the portal makes changes in the background to the EXTenstions file. All of Azure AD B2C shares a BASE policy file that is under the control of the Azure B2C team and is updated frequently.
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When an application calls the RP policy file, the Identity Experience Framework in Azure AD B2C adds all of the elements from base file, from the extensions file, and then from the RP policy file to assemble the current policy in effect. Elements of the same type and name in the RP file will override those in the extensions, and extensions overrides base.
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