Discovering macOS Settings with PlistWatch
In the Apple operating systems macOS and iOS, software applications store essential configuration data in an information property list (plist) files. The plist files are managed by the operating system. Although macOS does have utilities for reading and writing plist files, they are low level. It’s a manual and time-consuming process working with plist files. There is, however, a little known tool called PlistWatch that enables changes to plist files to be monitored in real...
A Quick Guide to Elasticsearch for .NET
Implementing search functionality in your .NET Core apps doesn’t have to be hard! Using Elasticsearch makes it easy to develop fast, searchable apps. In this post, I’ll walk you through building a simple web application using Okta (for user authentication), Elastic Cloud (the official Elasticsearch hosting provider), and the fabulous Elasticsearch NEST SDK. Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved...
Create a Secure Chat Application with Socket.IO and React
The HTTP protocol powers the web. Traditionally, HTTP is a request-response protocol. This means that a client requests data from a server, and the server responds to that request. In this model, a server will never send data to a client without having been queried first. This approach is suitable for many use cases that the web is used for. It allows loose coupling between clients and servers without the need to keep a persistent...
Faster Spring Boot Testing with Test Slices
We know unit testing is a vital part of the software development process. We also know us developers love to debate techniques, frameworks, strategies, and how different layers and components need testing. Unit tests are the most valuable when they are stable, fast, and reproducible. Spring Boot is known to reduce boilerplate code and make development extremely efficient, but it can come with a cost when it comes down to the testing. Without prior optimization,...
Update App Secrets with Jenkins CI and .NET Core
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Introduction Jenkins is a free and open-source application that makes it easy to create CI/CD pipelines in almost any language or environment. Jenkins features...
Developers Guide to GPG and YubiKey
Setting up a new YubiKey as a second factor is easy—your browser walks you through the entire process. However, setting up a YubiKey to sign your Git commits and Secure Shell (SSH) authentication is a very different experience. In this post, I’ll walk through configuring a YubiKey and highlight some of the things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve used GPG for years, but it didn’t really "click" for me until I sat down and...
What Apple's App Tracking Changes Mean for Developers
You know how you will see an ad on Instagram for something that you just searched for hours earlier? This is in no small part due to a special API for iOS that allows app developers to track your behavior across apps, even those by different developers. Well, all of this is changing with the rollout of iOS 14.5, so let’s take a look at what exactly is changing and what this means for app...
Set Access Control Policies With Kong Konnect and Okta
In our last Kong and Okta tutorial, we will implement a basic access control policy based on Okta’s groups and planes. This series will show you how to implement service authentication and authorization for Kong Konnect and Okta using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) plugin. Parts 1, 2 and 3 covered: Implement client credentials for application authentication Authorization Code for user authentication Implement introspection flow for token validation Table of Contents How Access Control Works Configure...
Use Okta and Oso to Secure a FastAPI + SQLAlchemy App
FastAPI is really fast and SQLAlchemy is really…SQL-y. But what good is a fast and SQL-y application if it isn’t secure? In this post, we’re going to show you how to secure a fast and SQL-y app! First we will need some authentication, which is how we identify who the user is. We’ll use Okta for this. Next, we’ll want to perform authorization, which controls what the user can do in our application. We’ll be...
Build Native Java Apps with Micronaut, Quarkus, and Spring Boot
Java has been able to invoke native programs on an operating system for decades. Invoking native programs is often done using JNI (Java Native Interface) and JNA (Java Native Access). In the last few years, Java has also gained the ability to run JVM apps as native apps. That is, they’re binary executables that have no dependency on the Java runtime. This is huge! Mostly because it gives Java apps the ability to start up...