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Get the Report →Build MVC Applications with Connectivity to Okta Data
This article shows how to use only the Entity Framework and the CData ADO.NET provider to access Okta from an ASP.NET MVC application.
In this article, we will guide you through the process of utilizing wizards within Visual Studio to seamlessly integrate the CData ADO.NET Provider for Okta into a basic MVC (Model, View, Controller) project.
Create the Entity Framework Model
Follow the steps below to save connection properties and map tables to entities in the data model.
- Create a new MVC project in Visual Studio. In this example, the project name is MvcOktaApp.
If you are using Entity Framework 6, you will need to take the preliminary step of registering the Okta Entity Framework provider for your project. See the "LINQ and Entity Framework" chapter in the help documentation for a guide.
Note that MVC 3 scaffolding and MVC 4 scaffolding do not support Entity Framework 6. You can use your scaffolding with Entity Framework 6 by upgrading to the latest version of MVC.- To add the .edmx file from the designer, right-click your Models folder and click Add New Item. Select ADO.NET Entity Data Model, name the model, and click Add. In this example, the name of the model is OktaModel.
- In the Entity Data Model wizard, select the option 'EF Designer from database'. The Entity Data Model wizard is displayed.
- Click New Connection. Select CData Okta Data Source in the dialog that is displayed.
Specify the required connection string properties.
To connect to Okta, set the Domain connection string property to your Okta domain.
You will use OAuth to authenticate with Okta, so you need to create a custom OAuth application.
Creating a Custom OAuth Application
From your Okta account:
- Sign in to your Okta developer edition organization with your administrator account.
- In the Admin Console, go to Applications > Applications.
- Click Create App Integration.
- For the Sign-in method, select OIDC - OpenID Connect.
- For Application type, choose Web Application.
- Enter a name for your custom application.
- Set the Grant Type to Authorization Code. If you want the token to be automatically refreshed, also check Refresh Token.
- Set the callback URL:
- For desktop applications and headless machines, use http://localhost:33333 or another port number of your choice. The URI you set here becomes the CallbackURL property.
- For web applications, set the callback URL to a trusted redirect URL. This URL is the web location the user returns to with the token that verifies that your application has been granted access.
- In the Assignments section, either select Limit access to selected groups and add a group, or skip group assignment for now.
- Save the OAuth application.
- The application's Client Id and Client Secret are displayed on the application's General tab. Record these for future use. You will use the Client Id to set the OAuthClientId and the Client Secret to set the OAuthClientSecret.
- Check the Assignments tab to confirm that all users who must access the application are assigned to the application.
- On the Okta API Scopes tab, select the scopes you wish to grant to the OAuth application. These scopes determine the data that the app has permission to read, so a scope for a particular view must be granted for the driver to have permission to query that view. To confirm the scopes required for each view, see the view-specific pages in Data Model < Views in the Help documentation.
A typical connection string is below:
Domain=dev-44876464.okta.com;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
Name the connection and select whether to include sensitive information, such as connection credentials, in the connection string. For simplicity, this example saves sensitive information in Web.config. The connection settings are saved as OktaEntities.
- Select the views you need. In this example, Users is imported. Also, the option to pluralize object names is deselected in this example. Click Finish to create the .edmx file.
- Build your project to complete this step.
Scaffold the Controller and Views
Once you've established the model and completed the project build, you can employ ASP.NET Scaffolding wizards to generate both the controller and the views.
- In Solution Explorer, right-click the controllers folder and click Add -> Controller. Select MVC 5 Controller with views, using Entity Framework.
- In the Add Controller dialog that is then displayed, select the following options:
- Model class: Select a table you imported; for example, Users.
- Data context class: Select your context class.
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Leave the default values for the other fields.