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Natively Connect to Okta Data in PHP


The CData ODBC driver for Okta enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Okta data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Okta into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Okta-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Okta data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Okta by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Okta Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Okta Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Status = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Okta Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Status = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Active'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Okta Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = 'Active'");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Okta data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = 'Active'"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["Id"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Okta data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Status = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Active')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Okta-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Okta ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Okta Icon Okta ODBC Driver

The Okta ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Okta, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Okta data like you would a database - read, write, and update Okta 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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