Create and Query iTwin Groups

Introduction

This tutorial will take you through the process of creating and retrieving groups for a given iTwin. iTwin groups provide the ability to manage groups of users at one time. You can create groups on the Account iTwin to manage access across iTwins or create a group for an individual iTwin. Groups created on an individual iTwin are available only on that iTwin. For more information for managing access using the Account iTwin, see Managing access using the Account iTwin

Groups can contain individual users and can also reference Bentley Identity Management System (IMS) groups. By referencing an IMS group, you can manage groups of individuals in your Active Directory, while providing them access to iTwin Platform using role assignments. IMS groups are created and controlled on the team level, and can be accessed here through Bentley’s User Management service. Only Accout Administrators, Co-Administrators, and Group Administrators will have access to the User Management Service. More information about creating and maintaining IMS groups can be found here.

By the end of this walk-through, you will be able to utilize the API endpoints in order to create and retrieve a list of iTwin groups.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you already have:

• A tool, such as Postman that can be used to execute HTTP calls. These calls can also be made using the Try it out button in the API documentation.
• If a user is affiliated with an Organization, the user must be an Organization Administrator to create an iTwin. An Organization Administrator must have at least one of the following roles assigned in User Management: Account Administrator, Co-Administrator, or CONNECT Services Administrator. For more information about User Management please visit our Bentley Communities Licensing, Cloud, and Web Services wiki page.
• An IMS group. IMS (Identity Management System) groups are created and controlled on the team level, and can be accessed here through Bentley’s User Management service. Only Accout Administrators, Co-Administrators, and Group Administrators will have access to the User Management Service. More information about creating and maintaining IMS groups can be found here.

1. Register an Application

You will need to register an application to use the iTwin Platform APIs. You can use the Register button to automatically create your first single page application (SPA). This will allow you to configure Authorization Code Flow for your SPA application and get the correct access token.

Once generated, you will be shown a few lines of code under the button.

• IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_CLIENT_ID - this is the unique identifier for your application. Displayed on application details page as Client ID.
• IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_REDIRECT_URI - specifies where users are redirected after they have chosen whether or not to authenticate your app. Displayed on application details page as one of Redirect URIs.
• IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_LOGOUT_URI - specifies where users can be returned to after logging out. Displayed on application details page as one of Post logout redirect URIs.
• IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_SCOPES - list of accesses granted to the application. Displayed on application details page as Scopes.

Or optionally: Register and configure your application manually following instructions in Register and modify an Application tutorial. Make sure that your application is associated with iTwins API and has iTwins:modify and iTwins:read scopes enabled.

2. Get a token

Before you can make a request to the APIs, a user token is needed. There are several ways to get it.

Implement Authorization Code Flow in the application

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Follow this article to implement Authorization code workflow in your application.

Grab a user token from the iTwins documentation page

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1. Go here
2. Click Try it out button.
3. Under the Authorization section, select authorizationCode from the dropdown.
4. After the sign in popup closes, the Authorization header with token value should be visible beneath the HTTP request dropdown.
5. Copy & paste the Authorization value for this tutorial.

3. Create iTwin Group

The Create iTwin group endpoint is used to create iTwin groups. After a group is created, users and IMS groups can be added.

The iTwin id from an existing iTwin (see create and query iTwins guide) is required to create a group. A name and description are required in the POST body.

The POST call will return a new group instance. The returned group id along with the iTwin id will be used to add users and IMS groups in the next step.

4. Update iTwins Groups Using the iTwin Id and Group Id

To assign users and imsGroups, the group needs to be updated. iTwin id and group id are required. The POST body should contain a list of users and imsGroups.

IMS groups are created and controlled on the team level, and can be accessed here through Bentley’s User Management service. Only Accout Administrators, Co-Administrators, and Group Administrators will have access to the User Management Service. More information about creating and maintaining IMS groups can be found here.

The response will contain the group details along with the list of users and imsGroups added.

5. Query for Groups using the iTwin Id

iTwin Id can be used to retrieve a list of iTwin groups.

The API will return a list of groups for a given iTwin.

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