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How to Connect to Okta Data in Using Python: 6 Steps


Create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to Okta data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for Okta and the pyodbc module, you can easily build Okta-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to Okta data, execute queries, and output the results.

How to Use the CData ODBC Drivers on UNIX/Linux

The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation (installed and found online).

1. Install the Driver Manager

Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.

For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:

$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev

For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:

$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel

The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:

$ odbcinst -j

The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:

DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini SQLULEN Size.......: 8 SQLLEN Size........: 8 SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8

2. Install the Driver

You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.

The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.

For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root: $ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb

For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root: $ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm

Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:

List the Registered Driver(s)

$ odbcinst -q -d CData ODBC Driver for Okta ...

List the Defined Data Source(s)

$ odbcinst -q -s CData Okta Source ...

To use the CData ODBC Driver for Okta with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.okta.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-okta), as follows:

cdata.odbc.okta.ini

... [Driver] DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16

3. Modify the DSN

The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.

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.

/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini

[CData Okta Source] Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Okta Description = My Description Domain = dev-44876464.okta.com

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing Okta through Python objects.

4. Install pyodbc

You can use the pip utility to install the module:

pip install pyodbc

Be sure to import with the module with the following:

import pyodbc

5. Connect to Okta Data

You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Okta};Domain=dev-44876464.okta.com;')

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Okta Sys;')

6. Execute SQL on Okta

Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.

cursor = cnxn.cursor()

Select

You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:

import pyodbc cursor = cnxn.cursor() cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Okta Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword') cursor.execute("SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = 'Active'") rows = cursor.fetchall() for row in rows: print(row.Id, row.ProfileFirstName)

You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:

cursor.execute( "SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = ?", 'Active',1)

Metadata Discovery

You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.

cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)

You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to Okta data, using the CData ODBC Driver for Okta.

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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