Management API: Setting a SymmetricKey on a new RP

Question

This should hopefully be an easy one.  I am using the ACS Management API to create RPs dynamically.  I need to set a sym

This article has a code sample:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh135144.aspx#BKMK_8

            string symKey = "SampleTokenSigningSymmetricKey";
            DateTime startDate, endDate;
            startDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
            endDate = DateTime.MaxValue;

            RelyingPartyKey relyingPartyKey = new RelyingPartyKey()
            {

                Type = "Symmetric",
                Usage = "Signing",
                Value = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(symKey),
                StartDate = startDate.ToUniversalTime(),
                EndDate = endDate.ToUniversalTime()
            };
         
            //Assign this symmetric key to the selected relying party application 

            svc.AddRelatedObject(relyingParty, "RelyingPartyKeys", relyingPartyKey);

The "problem" is that the "symKey" is getting encoded.  I am using SWT and need to make sure all my RP's have the same key.  From the management UX, I can copy my key which will look something like this (q4gm4VV6wTClCx+LBPr6ERUIbDVGK=) - but when put that into the code above, the result is encoded and thus doesn't match when put into ACS.

The documentation here is pretty unclear

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh124087.aspx

It just say its a binary value, which make sense because of the Byte[].  Is there a trick to getting my "known" key value up there?

Thanks

Answer 1

Wow, I found it - but it wasn't from any clear MSDN documentation. :(

The "fix" is to use this

Value = Convert.FromBase64String(symKey),

Instead of

Value = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(symKey),