Access Okta Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Okta connects Okta data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Okta data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Okta inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Okta data. The application created allows you to request Okta data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the 200+ available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.okta.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Okta

     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:

     1. Sign in to your Okta developer edition organization with your administrator account.
     2. In the Admin Console, go to Applications > Applications.
     3. Click Create App Integration.
     4. For the Sign-in method, select OIDC - OpenID Connect.
     5. For Application type, choose Web Application.
     6. Enter a name for your custom application.
     7. Set the Grant Type to Authorization Code. If you want the token to be automatically refreshed, also check Refresh Token.
     8. 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.
     9. In the Assignments section, either select Limit access to selected groups and add a group, or skip group assignment for now.
     10. Save the OAuth application.
     11. 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.
     12. Check the Assignments tab to confirm that all users who must access the application are assigned to the application.
     13. 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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Okta JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.okta.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.okta.OktaDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Okta data. For example: SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = 'Active'
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

9. To view your Okta data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Okta data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Okta data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Okta and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.