Scenario: In this post I will be explaining the
process of loading ASP.Net webapplication deployed to remote server (remote server
is not part of the SharePoint farm), in to SharePoint provider hosted app using
server to server trust (S2S). The provider hosted app is deployed to SharePoint
2013 farm.
The remote
web application will have all the UI and business logic.
Prerequisite’s:
1. You need
to have SharePoint 2013 farm up and running.
2. Ensure
that App Management service and User profile service applications are started.
3. Visual studio
2012 installed on remote server and Sharepoint dev environment.
4. Install
visual studio app templates on your Sharepoint2013 dev environment. You can download
the app dev templates from here under “Tools”:
5. Create a SSL
enabled web application in SharePoint 2013 farm, this is the site you will
deploy your provider hosted app to.
Walkthrough:
Log-on to SharePoint 2013 machine and
do the following:-
1. Create a self-signed certificate in IIS as shown in below screen shot name it; say ‘test’ and click on “Ok”.
2. Right click on newly created certificate ‘test’ in IIS and select “Export” the “Export Certificate” wizard will open as shown in below screen shot.
Here provide path to save on disk, type the password and
click ok. The certificate will be stored with .pfx extension in the said
location.
3. Within
IIS double click on “test” certificate, the “Certificate” wizard will open as
shown in below screen shot.
Go
to “Details” tab and click on “Copy to File”. Click on “Next” thrice with
default values selected. As shown in below screen shot.
Here
browse to the location where you want to save this certificate and give it a
name test.cer and click “save”. Click “Next” and click “finish”.
4. Now
copy the “test.cer” created in step 3, to remote VM\machine where you want to
host the Remote webapplication containing the UI and business logic for the
SharePoint app.
5. On
your SharePoint dev environment open visual studio 2012 as administrator, click
fileà new Project
and under “Other Project types” select “Visual Studio Solutions” and give
project a name say “test” and click “Ok”. Now right click on Solution explorer
test, go to Addà new
project, under “Office/SharePoint” click “Apps” and select “App for Sharepoint
2013” template give it a name say “test1” and click “Ok”. The “New App for
SharePoint” wizard will open as shown in below screen shot.
Fill
the other details as shown in the above screen shot and click “Next”. The “Configure
authentication settings” wizard will open as shown in below screen shot
<!--[endif]-->
Here
select “Use a certificate” option and in “Certificate location” select the path
were you have stored the “test.pfx” file in step 2. Type a password you have
given previously. For the “Issuer ID” generate a guid from visual studio,
convert it in to lower case and paste it. Make a note of the “Issuer ID” guid,
you need it later. Click “Finish”
Note: the “Issuer ID” guid must all be in
lower case, if not make it lower case.
6. Now
go to “AppManifest.xml” and update “ClientId” value “*” with “Issuer ID” guid
from step 5.
7. Update the “StartPage” value in the “AppManifest.xml”
with landing page of the WebApplication hosted on remote web server. It should
look similar to below
Where
“11.200.217.176” is the IP address of the remote webserver/machine where the
remote web application is installed.
8.Open
SharePoint 2013 Management Shell and execute below CMDLETs
$publicCertPath = "<cert
path>"
$appId = "<Issuer ID/Client ID>"
$spurl
="https://mycompany.com/"
$spweb = Get-SPWeb $spurl
$realm = Get-SPAuthenticationRealm
-ServiceContext $spweb.Site
$certificate = Get-PfxCertificate
$publicCertPath
$fullAppIdentifier = $appId + '@' +
$realm
New-SPTrustedSecurityTokenIssuer -Name
"Test1" -Certificate $certificate -RegisteredIssuerName
$fullAppIdentifier
$appPrincipal =
Register-SPAppPrincipal -NameIdentifier $fullAppIdentifier -Site $spweb
-DisplayName "Test1"
Set-SPAppPrincipalPermission -Site
$spweb -AppPrincipal $appPrincipal -Scope Site -Right FullControl
Where "<cert path>" is the
path where you have stored the certificates in step 2. "<Issuer ID/Client ID>" is the lower case GUID
created in step 5. “$spurl” is the
site you want to install/debug your app to. Press “enter” in O15 Management
shell.
9. Go
to IIS Manager, expand sites. Right click on the SSL enabled web application you
created as part of pre-requisite and click on “Edit Bindings”. Here create a
new “https” binding, select port 443 and select “test” for SSL certificate as
shown in below screen shot and click “Ok”.
10. Now in Visual studio 2012 press
Ctrl+F5 to deploy the app to SharePoint site. On successful deployment, when
you click on the app the “remote web application” landing page will be loaded.
Deploying or Installing Webapplication
on remote web server.
The
webapplication on remote webserver can be developed using any technology, but
here I am using .net and IIS web server.
1.Log on to the remote web server
2.Open visual studio 2010 as administrator and create new project with “ASP.Net Web Forms Application” name it say “test”.
3. In solution explorer go to “default.aspx” page find <asp:Content> tag with ID=”BodyContent” clear all the code in between this <asp:content> and place a button with “onClick” event. Go to buttons code view and in it’s click event, type some text like “Hello from remote web app”.
4.Build the solution.
5.After successful build, in solution explorer select “test” project, right click and select “Publish” and publish it to IIS. The details steps on how to publish the web application to IIS using visual studio can be found here:-
Alternatively, you can use web platform installer4.0 and web deploy component to publish web application to IIS.
6.Open IIS Manager, on remote web server; go to the site on to which you published the web application in step 5. Click on “Bindings” under “Actions” and add “https” binding with port 443 and select “test.cer” certificate (the test.cer certificate must be copied from SharePoint 2013 farm and must be imported to IIS to be used on remote web server).
The above demonstration is from developer’s
point of view, which can be easily extended to production environments.
