Configuring the authentication process

Step 1. Enable authentication on the server

Windows authentication on the server side can be enabled in the flexmonster.config file – a special configuration file for Flexmonster Accelerator. In this file, set the WINDOWS_AUTH property to true to enable the authentication:

WINDOWS_AUTH=true

Step 2. Specify origins from which requests should be accepted

When enabled, the authentication requires certain origins to be defined in the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. Origin is a domain that sends requests to Flexmonster Accelerator (e.g., http://localhost:8080 or https://example.com). To allow the origin to send requests to the Accelerator, specify the ALLOW_ORIGIN property in the flexmonster.config file:

ALLOW_ORIGIN=http://localhost:8080

Several origins can be defined as follows:

ALLOW_ORIGIN=http://localhost:8080, https://example.com

Step 3. Configure the data source on the client

Windows authentication should be allowed on the client side as well. To enable the authentication on the client, set the withCredentials property of the DataSourceObject to true:

var pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer",
    toolbar: true, 
    report: {
        dataSource: {
            type: "microsoft analysis services",
            proxyUrl: "http://localhost:50005",
            catalog: "Adventure Works DW Standard Edition",
            cube: "Adventure Works",
            binary: true,
            withCredentials: true
         }
    }
});

To apply the configurations, restart Flexmonster Accelerator. You can check if the Accelerator is up and running by navigating to its URL in the browser (http://localhost:50005 by default).

Flexmonster Accelerator will automatically use your current Windows user to perform impersonated requests to Microsoft Analysis Services.

If the page with Flexmonster Pivot is opened in the Incognito browser window, the pop-up window prompting to enter your login and password should appear. After you log in with your Windows user credentials, Flexmonster Accelerator should successfully connect to the data source.

This guide contains the following sections:

• Run the sample project with Windows authentication
• Configure Windows authentication in your application

Run the sample project with Windows authentication

To illustrate how Windows authentication can be configured in an Accelerator DLL project, we added the windows-authentication branch to our sample GitHub application.

To run the sample project, complete these steps:

Step 1. Download the .zip archive with the windows-authentication branch or clone it from GitHub with the following command:

git clone -b windows-authentication https://github.com/flexmonster/pivot-accelerator-dll

Step 2. Open the sample project in Visual Studio using the Flexmonster Accelerator MVC.sln solution file.

Step 3. Update the NuGet packages if needed:

1. Right-click the project name in Solution Explorer and select Manage NuGet Packages in the context menu.
2. Go to the Updates tab and check the Select all packages checkbox.
3. Click the Update button.

Step 4. Open the FlexmonsterConfig.cs file and specify your data source (e.g., localhost):

public static void Register()
{
  Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController
  .ConnectionString = "Data Source=yourDataSource";
  // Other configurations
}

Step 5. Now go to the Index.cshtml view and set your values for the catalog and cube properties:

dataSource: {
    dataSourceType: "microsoft analysis services",
    proxyUrl: "/api/accelerator/",
    catalog: "Your Catalog",
    cube: "Your Cube",
    binary: true,
    withCredentials: true
}

Step 6. Run the sample project by clicking the IIS Express button on the toolbar:

To see the result, open http://localhost:55158/ in your browser. Flexmonster Accelerator will automatically use your current Windows user to perform impersonated requests to Microsoft Analysis Services.

Configure Windows authentication in your application

Now let’s see which configurations you should set to enable Windows authentication in your project:

1. Enable authentication on the Accelerator’s side in the FlexmonsterConfig.cs file:

   public static void Register()
   {
     // Other configurations
     Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController
     .AuthEnabled = true;
     Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController
     .Impersonator = new WindowsImpersonatorFactory();
     // Other configurations
   }
   

2. In the Web.config file, specify the <security> element to define authentication configurations for the server:

   <system.webServer>
     <!-- Other tags -->
     <security>
       <authentication>
         <anonymousAuthentication enabled="true" />
         <windowsAuthentication enabled="true" />
       </authentication>
       <authorization>
         <remove users="*" roles="" verbs=""/>
         <add accessType="Allow" users="?" verbs="OPTIONS"/>
         <add accessType="Deny" 
          users="?" verbs="GET,PUT,POST,DELETE"
         />
         <add accessType="Allow" roles="Users" />
       </authorization>
     </security>
     <!-- Other tags -->
   </system.webServer> 
   

   Learn more about the <security> element in the Microsoft documentation.
3. In the pivot-accelerator-dll/.vs/Flexmonster Accelerator MVC/config/applicationhost.config file, find the anonymousAuthentication element and set its enabled attribute to true. Then do the same for the windowsAuthentication element:

   <authentication>
     <anonymousAuthentication enabled="true" userName="" />
     <!-- Other configs -->
     <windowsAuthentication enabled="true">
        <!-- Other configs -->
     </windowsAuthentication>
   </authentication>
   

   Note that the .vs/ folder appears after opening the project in Visual Studio, and it is hidden by default. See the Microsoft documentation for guidance on displaying hidden folders.
4. Set the dataSource.withCredentials property to true in your .cshtml page (e.g., Index.cshtml):

   dataSource: {
       dataSourceType: "microsoft analysis services",
       proxyUrl: "/api/accelerator/",
       catalog: "Your Catalog",
       cube: "Your Cube",
       binary: true,
       withCredentials: true
   },
   

Now you can use Windows authentication in your Accelerator DLL project.