User management is a fundamental aspect of application development. Whether you’re building a consumer-facing app or an enterprise solution, handling authentication, authorization, and user data is a critical challenge. In many cases, user data needs to be accessible across multiple services, even when the user hasn’t explicitly logged into each one. This is where directory management comes into play.

Traditionally, applications relied on LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) to manage user directories. However, with the shift to cloud-based environments, the way we handle user data has evolved. The conventional Active Directory structure no longer fits seamlessly into modern cloud ecosystems, making LDAP-based approaches, such as ColdFusion’s cfldap, less relevant. Given this transformation, it became essential to explore native support for modern directory management in ColdFusion.

Currently, Microsoft Entra is Microsoft’s leading cloud IAM solution, allowing users to migrate seamlessly from on-premises directories to the cloud. With Microsoft Entra ID, enterprises can integrate cloud identity management into ColdFusion applications, ensuring a smooth transition from traditional LDAP-based authentication to modern, scalable solutions.

Managing the User Lifecycle in ColdFusion 2025 with Microsoft Graph

User lifecycle management typically involves four key stages:

1. Onboarding & Registration – Creating user accounts.
2. Authentication & Authorization – Ensuring secure access.
3. User Profile & Data Management – Updating user details.
4. Account Deletion & Data Removal – Handling user-initiated data deletions.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to implement these stages in ColdFusion 2025 using its built-in library msgraph, focusing on a generic approach rather than a specific example—ensuring broad applicability across applications that involve user management. For more information refer cloud user store 

Introducing MS Graph Integration in ColdFusion 2025

ColdFusion 2025 introduces MS Graph integration with the built-in function GetMSGraphServiceClient, enabling seamless interaction with Microsoft services via the Microsoft Graph API. The GetMSGraphServiceClient function acts as a service handler within ColdFusion, allowing developers to interact with Microsoft Graph functionalities.

Onboarding & Registration

Since user creation within a Microsoft tenant typically requires administrator privileges, you must first obtain an OAuth access token with the necessary admin permissions. This token is then used with GetMSGraphServiceClient to create a Microsoft Graph service handle. With this service handle, administrators can perform various user management tasks.

<cfscript>

    tokenResponse = GetOauthAccessToken({

        type: "Microsoft",

        providerConfig: {

            tenant: "#application.tenantId#"

        },

        clientid: "#application.clientId#",

        secretKey: "#application.clientSecret#",

        // using user.readwrite.all which is a privileged role.

        scope: "offline_access user.readwrite.all"

    });

    msGraphClient = getMSGraphServiceClient({

        access_token: "#tokenResponse.access_token#"

    });

    // For more details on the properties refer documentation(https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/using/ms-graph-user-store-coldfusion.html).

    aUser = {

        accountEnabled: true,

        displayName: "Adele Vance",

        mailNickName: "AdeleV",

        userPrincipalName: "AdeleV@contoso.com",

        passwordProfile: {

            forceChangePasswordNextSignIn: true,

            password: "xWwvJ]6NMw+bWH-d"

        }

    }

   

    // Simple createUser on the details will create a new user

    msGraphClient.createUser(aUser);

</cfscript>

Authentication & Authorization

For secure authentication and authorization, OAuth 2.0 is the preferred method. ColdFusion provides two key options for implementing OAuth authentication:

1. cfoauth –  A tag-based approach for implementing OAuth protocol in ColdFusion.
2. GetOauthAccessToken – A built-in function to retrieve OAuth access tokens for authenticating API requests.

By leveraging these tools, ColdFusion applications can securely authenticate users and integrate with Microsoft services while ensuring robust access management.

User Profile & Data Management

ColdFusion provides robust capabilities for managing user profile data. It offers functionalities such as getUser to retrieve user details, updateUser to modify profile information, getUsersDelta to track changes in user data, and passwordChange to update user properties. These features enable seamless user management, allowing applications to interact with Microsoft Entra ID efficiently. Additionally, there are many other functions available that allow further manipulation of user data.

<cfscript>

    graphServiceClient = getMSGraphServiceClient({access_token = "#accessToken#"});

    //Update properties of the signed-in user

    details = {

        businessPhones : ["+1 425 555 0109"],

        officeLocation : "18/2111"

    }

    graphServiceClient.updateUser(details);

</cfscript>

Account Deletion & Data Removal

ColdFusion’s msgraph package also provides powerful deletion and session management capabilities. Administrators can use deleteUser to permanently remove a user from the Microsoft Entra ID tenant. Additionally, ColdFusion supports session revocation through revokeSignInSessions, which immediately invalidates all active sessions for a specific user, forcing them to reauthenticate. These features help maintain security by ensuring that unauthorized users lose access instantly and that user data can be effectively managed.

<cfscript>

    // Let's assume you have a flag for detecting malicious activity.

    if (irregularityNoticed && count > 10) {

        // If irregularity repeats over 10 times, delete the user.

        graphServiceClient.deleteUser("user-id");

    } else if (irregularityNoticed) {

        // If irregularity is first noticed, revoke user sessions.

        graphServiceClient.revokeSignInSessions("user-id");

        count++;

    }

</cfscript>