Microsoft.Identity.Client and getting rid of System.Windows.Forms reference

[swidz]

I am working on an integration library that references Microsoft.Identity.Client (I have also tried to use older implementation Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory)

My library type is .Net Standard 2.0

If my library is referenced in .Net Core Class Library project then the build references Microsoft.Identity.Client which does not include reference to System.Windows.Forms

If my library is referenced in .Net Framework 4.6.1 Class Library project then the build references Microsoft.Identity.Client which does include reference to System.Windows.Forms

The customer has asked to prepare .Net Framework 4.6.1 library that can be linked in their ERP software which includes a webserver. It seems that the webserver application during startup runs some sort of validation before loading external libraries and checks if non of them is referencing System.Windows.Forms. In my case the webserver rejects the libraries.

I cannot build the libraries as .Net Core as it will not be compatible with the web application. I must use .Net Framework 4.6.1

Is there a solution to this problem?

[bgavrilMS]

Hmm, we will actually take a dependnecy on WInForms from .net core as well soon...

We've tried splitting MSAL into public client (which requires WinForms) and confidential client (for web and without WinForms), but sadly this turns out to be extremely complicated.

One thing I can think of is to try to use our .net standard version (.net standard 1.3). I had to remove quite a lot of functionality from it, but for confidential client it should work fine.

We have a feature request to add support for a higher version of .net standard with more functionality, as scenarios such as yours are quite common. #1991

[henrik-me]

@swidz We are not planning on removing the reference to winforms for the net desktop target. however we are planning on supporting embedded webviews on netcore via custom ui. Closing, if you need more information please reopen and let us know

[pedrolupin]

Azure.Identity 1.9.0 -> Microsoft.Identity.Client 4.49.1 did not have a dependency on System.Windows.Forms, but when updating to newer Azure.Identity 1.10.4 -> Microsoft.Identity.Client 4.56.0 the dependency to Windows.Forms appeared, this is a problem.

Azure.Identity should be able to run headless, on servers and many situations that don't have access to System.Windows.Forms because the .NET desktop runtime is not present.