Introduction

This article is meant to help get the keys from your native application. We used to show the keys in native applications however we took out that feature because the native application is not meant to have keys/secrets. As a result some people have had keys/secrets with their native applications however they currently still use those keys/secrets. This article is to help those people in order to get access to their keys/secrets or to simply change an existing application from a native application a web api.

Note : This is not recommended practice, and this is solely meant for customers who have keys on their native application but can’t get to them anymore; so they need a workaround to get access to the native application Keys

Changing a Native Application to a Web API

In order to change a Native Application to a web API, first you’ll have to open up the application manifest in the azure portal for your AAD Application that you would like to change. After finding your application press the manifest button shown in the picture below.

Please note that this does not work from web API to native application, you can only do it from Native Application to Web API.

The highlighted field “publicClient” is the field that determines whether an application is a web app/api or native application. When it is true, it is a native application otherwise it is a web app. Once you turn the application into a web app you will be able to see the keys blade.

As you can see from the two pictures above, the keys blade is not in the native application. But when we change the application to a web app/api we are able to see the keys blade now. This is helpful for users who created keys when it was available for native applications.

Conclusion

We have now shown how to change a native application to a web API by changing the publicClient field in the application manifest. If there are any more questions regarding this issue feel free to post a comment and we will respond as soon as possible.