[Identity] Quality improvements

[sadasant]

Here’s a list of quality improvements I’d like to do on Identity:

• Easy cleanups, naming and placement:
  • Think through the private names and re-evaluate improving them. Like the file structure in the MSAL folder. I’m sure some things can feel better if they have a better name. (PR)
  • Go through the available tests and ensure they are ordered correctly. Ensure their names are meaningful, and add comments if needed.
  • Re-review the manual tests and improve their code / comments / docs.
  • Cleanup the folder structure on the manual samples and manual tests. (PR)
• Concrete changes with net benefits:
  • In a new test file (just one, if possible/if comfortable) write mocked code to trigger all of the known errors the Identity library has, including comments on why these errors may occur. This will both help us keep track of what error cases we have over time, but also will help us see all of our expected errors in a single place (which will make it easier to debug customer issues, write troubleshooting guidelines and see how to improve all of the errors together as a whole, by comparing them to one another.)
• Potential improvements:
  • Credentials and MSIs are rather similar. In the simplest case, they represent one network request to an endpoint. They also can have synchronous and asynchronous steps to prepare the authentication, they can have a caching policy, a retry policy, and they may or may not use MSAL underneath. In more concrete terms, I feel there’s away to implement the MSAL “flows”, the non-MSAL credentials and the MSIs (Managed Identity Credential scenarios) through a common set of types in a way that it will make it even easier to implement and debug any of those in the future.

[sadasant]

Concrete changes ordered by impact:

Here’s a list of quality improvements I’d like to do on Identity:

Task	Impact level	Impact	Cost	Done
Simplify the HTTP request mock for Node and the Browser.	High	Easier to debug tests.	2	No
Run browser tests using CasperJS.	High	Enables browser testing from node, including navigation. Azure’s interactive login can be mocked.	8	No
Write tests to verify the debugging of DefaultAzureCredential	Medium	Goes through the review of the debugging capabilities of DefaultAzureCredential and ensures this experience doesn’t deteriorate over time.	3	No
Write tests to verify the debugging of ManagedIdentityCredential	Medium	Goes through the review of the debugging capabilities of ManagedIdentityCredential and ensures this experience doesn’t deteriorate over time.	3	No
Fix grammar on the test names.	Low	Easier to debug tests.	1	No

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Note

I’m going to drop this one. I think I should revisit it after we do the deliverables of October 2022:

Credentials and MSIs are rather similar. In the simplest case, they represent one network request to an endpoint. They also can have synchronous and asynchronous steps to prepare the authentication, they can have a caching policy, a retry policy, and they may or may not use MSAL underneath. In more concrete terms, I feel there’s away to implement the MSAL “flows”, the non-MSAL credentials and the MSIs (Managed Identity Credential scenarios) through a common set of types in a way that it will make it even easier to implement and debug any of those in the future.

[sadasant]

Closing on favor of these new issues:

• [Identity] Simplify the HTTP request mock for Node and the Browser #19420 (February Milestone)
• [Identity] Run browser tests using CasperJS #19421 (Backlog)
• [Identity] Test the debugging of DefaultAzureCredential and ManagedIdentityCredential #19422 (Backlog)