In the last couple of years (beginning in 2023), Microsoft has significantly changed how it allows third-party products to authenticate against services such as Microsoft 365 (Office365), Outlook.com, Hotmail, and other Exchange services. As a result, SmarterTrack has to utilize a Microsoft Azure OAuth application, maintained by SmarterTools, that allows SmarterTrack to connect to these services. This Azure OAuth application includes a 'secret key' that Microsoft requires to be updated on a regular basis. That update can only be included in a new version of SmarterTrack because the updated key has to be included in the SmarterTrack code base.
Recently, however, SmarterTools has made changes in SmarterTrack that give administrators the ability to create an Azure OAuth integration application of their own to facilitate this functionality and reduce the need for code updates in SmarterTrack. Details on how to go about this are below.
Azure Tenant Setup
This document doesn’t go into detail on the technical side of tenant setup. But in order to get started, the administrator will need to have full access to https://portal.azure.com, and will need to have at least the domain name being used for SmarterTrack/user authentication set up as a verified domain in their Azure tenant.
Azure Application Creation
The first step involves adding a registered application under App Registrations in the Azure portal.
1. Under App registrations, click the New registration button/link:
2. Next, add some basic information, giving the application a name and choosing the tenant support options you want included in your integration. Please note that multi-tenant access will require that your Azure account/Organization are registered as a verified publisher with Microsoft. This means you’ll only be able to use OAuth authentication with domains associated with your account and will not be able to leverage personal/XBox/Live accounts
Azure Application Configuration
Once you’ve added the new integration, open it to view it’s settings. You'll notice there are no Platform Configurations listed. This is where you'll add in the OAuth Connection settings from SmarterTrack. To get this information, log back in to SmarterTrack and navigate to Settings > Connected Services > OAuth Connection. Select the OAuth Connection tab, then click the Setup OAuth button to open the Secret Key modal. Copy the SMTP Account URI as you'll need that for the Platform.
On your Azure application, click Add a platform and paste the SMTP Account URI from SmarterTrack as the Redirect URI in your Azure application.
Also be sure to include the two checkboxes off to the right-hand side to accommodate the SmarterTrack web application. Once that is set and saved, navigate to the Certificates and Secrets area within your application registration to add a new secret key as seen below:
Once set and saved, you can use the Copy button next to the Secret Key Value fields and complete the same fields on the SmarterTrack side to finish the process. It is important to know that once you navigate away from the client secret page, that the Secret Key Value will be obfuscated, so you can no longer see, much less copy it. So be sure to copy the Secret Key Value right away.
Within SmarterTrack you will need to go to SmarterTrack under Settings > Connected Services > OAuth Connection to finish the setup.
Click the Setup OAuth button to open the modal that will allow you to enter the Client ID and Secret Key Value, along with the Secret Keys expiration date.
Once this information is entered and saved, you will need to reconnect any of the POP/SMTP accounts that where already using OAuth to now use the new settings.
Here are several links that will be helpful when working within Azure.