Implementing Google account authentication in ASP.NET MVC

Step 1: Create a Google OAuth application

To create it please follow the steps below:

• Go to https://console.developers.google.com, login with your Gmail id.
• Click on ‘Select a Project’ dropdown at left top of the page.
• Click on ‘Create project’ button,
• Enter project name and create project.
• Click Credentials on the left navigation.
• Click Create Credentials > OAuth ClientID, fill the form and submit.
• Client ID and Client Secrete will be created on successful creation of application.
• This will be used in Authorization process.

Step 2: Configuring your Google application

• Login to  https://console.developers.google.com
• Select your created application and click on edit.
• Enter the ‘Authorized redirect URL’.
• Click on ‘Save button.
  Now your application created and configured.
  Step 3: Creating visual studio application
• Create empty Asp.Net MVC application and add controller.
• In ‘Home View’ create one action link like below
  • @Html.ActionLink("Login Using Google", "")
• In action method add redirect url, there user redirect to Google login URL,
  • url: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?response_type=code&redirect_uri=&scope=https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile&client_id=>
  • response_type : The value of this field should always be:  code
  • redirect_uri : The URI your users will be sent back to after authorization. This value must match one of the defined OAuth 2.0 Redirect URLs in your application configuration.
  • Scope : A URL-encoded, space delimited list of member permissions your application is requesting on behalf of the user.  If you do not specify a scope in your call, we will fall back to using the default member permissions you defined in your application configuration.
  • client_id : The "ClientID" value generated when you registered your application.
• Add controller and create callback function and add below code
  • Here we need to collect the Authorization code and Access token.
  • Sample code:

                    try

                    {

                        var url = Request.Url.Query;

                        if (url != "")

                        {

                            string queryString = url.ToString();

                            char[] delimiterChars = { '=' };

                            string[] words = queryString.Split(delimiterChars);

                            string code = words[1];

                            if (code != null)

                            {

                                //get the access token

                                HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token");

                                webRequest.Method = "POST";

                                Parameters = "code=" + code + "&client_id=" + client_id + "&client_secret=" + client_sceret + "&redirect_uri=" + redirect_url + "&grant_type=authorization_code";

                                byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Parameters);

                                webRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

                                webRequest.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;

                                Stream postStream = webRequest.GetRequestStream();

                                // Add the post data to the web request

                                postStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);

                                postStream.Close();

                                WebResponse response = webRequest.GetResponse();

                                postStream = response.GetResponseStream();

                                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(postStream);

                                string responseFromServer = reader.ReadToEnd();

                                GoogleAccessToken serStatus = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GoogleAccessToken>(responseFromServer);

                                if (serStatus != null)

                                {

                                    string accessToken = string.Empty;

                                    accessToken = serStatus.access_token;

                                    Session["Token"] = accessToken;

                                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(accessToken))

                                    {

                                      //call get user information function with access token as parameter

                                    }

                                }

                            }

                        }

                    }

                    catch (Exception ex)

                    {

                        return RedirectToAction("Index","Home");

                    }

            }

• To get user information add below function
  try
              {
                  HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
                  var urlProfile = "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/userinfo?access_token=" + access_token;
                  client.CancelPendingRequests();
                  HttpResponseMessage output = client.GetAsync(urlProfile).Result;
                  if (output.IsSuccessStatusCode)
                  {
                      string outputData = output.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
                      serStatus = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GoogleUserOutputData>(outputData);
                  }
              }
              catch (Exception ex)
              {
                  //catching the exception
              }
              return View(serStatus);
  Note: we need to create following model to Deserialize the json into object:
  
  
  public class GoogleAccessToken
         {
          public string access_token { get; set; }
          public string token_type { get; set; }
          public int expires_in { get; set; }
          public string id_token { get; set; }
          public string refresh_token { get; set; }
  }
  
  
  public class GoogleUserOutputData
         {
          public string id { get; set; }
          public string name { get; set; }
          public string given_name { get; set; }
          public string email { get; set; }
          public string picture { get; set; }
      }
  
  
• Finally, we will add LogOff action to logoff user.

public ActionResult LogOff()

{

//Logout from application

    FormsAuthentication.SignOut();

    return Redirect(Url.Action("Index","Home"));

//Logout from google

            return Redirect("https://www.google.com/accounts/Logout?continue=https://appengine.google.com/_ah/logout?continue=";

}

Conclusion:     

We have discussed how to implement google oauth2 to secure our web application. The main advantage of google oauth2 is user no need to remember all of his/her account details, user can login using google credentials.