Question

So I am fairly new to ASP.NET MVC and Windows Live Connect API. Basically I am trying to integrate Live sign in into my website. When users sign in, Live requests their permission to give my app certain info, sends the user to a redirect uri specified in my app settings appended with a querystring. Here, if the user is signing into the site for the first time, I want their basic info stored on my server (first name, last name, email). I have been able to get their first and last name, but am having a hard time finding out how to retrieve their primary email address. I’ll explain what I’ve done so far.

I couldn’t find the best way to integrate Live connect into an MVC app so I took my best guess. I specified a controller action in my redirect uri that takes the querystring “code” to construct an HTTP Post.

HttpRequest req = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request;

            string myAuthCode = req.QueryString["code"];
            string myAppId = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("wll_appid");
            string mySecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("wll_secret");
            string postData = "client_id=" + myAppId + "&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmscontestplatformtest.com%2FContestPlatform%2FUser%2FSignIn&client_secret=" + mySecret + "&code=" + myAuthCode + "&grant_type=authorization_code";

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

            WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create("https://oauth.live.com/token");
            request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            request.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;
            request.Method = "POST";

Get the JSON-formatted string response and extract the access_token. Then I use this access token to construct an HTTP GET call as follows.

request = WebRequest.Create("https://apis.live.net/v5.0/me?access_token=" + r.access_token);
            response = request.GetResponse();
            reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());

            string userInfo = reader.ReadToEnd(); 

The GET call above provides me with this JSON string:

{ 
    "id": "02b4b930697bbea1", 
    "name": "Daniel Hines", 
    "first_name": "Daniel", 
    "last_name": "Hines", 
    "link": "http://profile.live.com/cid-02b4b930697bbea1/", 
    "gender": "male", 
    "locale": "en_US", 
    "updated_time": "2011-10-14T21:40:38+0000" 
} 

Which is all public info and is great, I have almost everything I need except their primary email address. What sort of GET call do I need to retrieve email?

Also, am I doing this right way?

Answer 1

Ok I figured it out!

I just needed to add the scope “wl.emails” to my sign in link. Then my GET call will return their email addresses.