Create a Data Access Object for Okta Data using JDBI

JDBI is a SQL convenience library for Java that exposes two different style APIs, a fluent style and a SQL object style. The CData JDBC Driver for Okta integrates connectivity to live Okta data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to Okta data. This article explains how to build a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read Okta data.

Create a DAO for the Okta Users Entity

The interface below declares the desired behavior for the SQL object to create a single method for each SQL statement to be implemented.

public interface MyUsersDAO {
 //request specific data from Okta (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = :status")
 String findProfileFirstNameByStatus(@Bind("status") String status);

 /*
 * close with no args is used to close the connection
 */
 void close();
}

Open a Connection to Okta

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to 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 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.

A connection string for Okta will typically look like the following:

jdbc:okta:Domain=dev-44876464.okta.com;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

Use the configured JDBC URL to obtain an instance of the DAO interface. The particular method shown below will open a handle bound to the instance, so the instance needs to be closed explicitly to release the handle and the bound JDBC connection.

DBI dbi = new DBI("jdbc:okta:Domain=dev-44876464.okta.com;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyUsersDAO dao = dbi.open(MyUsersDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Okta Data

With the connection open to Okta, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Users entity in Okta.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String profileFirstName = dao.findProfileFirstNameByStatus("Active");
System.out.println(profileFirstName);

Since the JDBI library is able to work with JDBC connections, you can easily produce a SQL Object API for Okta by integrating with the CData JDBC Driver for Okta. Download a free trial and work with live Okta data in custom Java applications today.