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Basil DobekBasil Dobek 

Does anyone understand the use case for the "OAuth 2.0 SAML Bearer Assertion Flow"?

The documentation (https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=remoteaccess_oauth_SAML_bearer_flow.htm) says the OAuth 2.0 SAML Bearer Assertion Flow is "used to request an OAuth access token when a client wants to use a previous authorization."    Under what types of circumstances would a client have a previous authorization and why wouldn't they just use that authorization instead of trying to get another?  Any insights or examples would be appreciated.  Thanks.
Best Answer chosen by Basil Dobek
NagendraNagendra (Salesforce Developers) 
Hi Basil,

This flow is generally used for authenticating applications to another. I would use this flow when I need to connect, for example, a custom Java application that sits on a web server to Salesforce. The most important part is here that the application solely communicates via the API and no user is ever going to set the connection up and/or approves the access as you would do in a web server or user agent flow.  

Note: The "SAML Bearer Assertion Flow" flow creates a JSON based assertion. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Nagendra

All Answers

NagendraNagendra (Salesforce Developers) 
Hi Basil,

This flow is generally used for authenticating applications to another. I would use this flow when I need to connect, for example, a custom Java application that sits on a web server to Salesforce. The most important part is here that the application solely communicates via the API and no user is ever going to set the connection up and/or approves the access as you would do in a web server or user agent flow.  

Note: The "SAML Bearer Assertion Flow" flow creates a JSON based assertion. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Nagendra
This was selected as the best answer
Basil DobekBasil Dobek
Thank you Nagendra.  It seems like it covers the same use case as the OpenId JWT Assertion Flow (https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=remoteaccess_oauth_jwt_flow.htm&type=0).  I guess you would choose this when your Identity provider doesn't support JWT or OpenId.