ACS 2.0 Samples and Documentation
The Access Control Service (ACS) 2.0 allows you to integrate single sign on (SSO) and centralized authorization into your web applications. It works with most modern platforms, and integrates with both web and enterprise identity providers. This CodePlex project contains code samples and documentation for the production release of ACS 2.0. We hope you find this format easy to use and helpful, and encourage your feedback directly on this site. We look forward to hearing from you.
The production release of ACS is publicly available through the Windows Azure portal at
http://windows.azure.com, and has a service license agreement. After signing up, ACS 2.0 namespaces can be created using the Service Bus, Access Control, and Caching section of the portal.
You can use the following resources to learn more about this release:
If you can't wait to get started, then feel free to dive into the
Code Samples. Also be sure to visit the
Windows Azure Security Forum if you have questions.
Key Features
ACS 2.0 contains many features that substantially advance the capabilities of the previous release. The main features of this release are listed below:
- Integrates with Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) and tooling
- Out-of-the-box support for popular web identity providers including: Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook
- Out-of-the-box support for Active Directory Federation Services 2.0
- Support for OAuth 2.0 (draft 13), WS-Trust, and WS-Federation protocols
- Support for the SAML 1.1, SAML 2.0, and Simple Web Token (SWT) token formats
- Integrated and customizable Home Realm Discovery that allows users to choose their identity provider
- An OData-based Management Service that provides programmatic access to ACS configuration
- A Web Portal that allows administrative access to ACS configuration