Get Started with Jetty, Java, and OAuth
Jetty is a small, highly-scalable Java-based web server and servlet engine. It supports HTTP/2, WebSockets, and many other protocols. It powers websites and frameworks, both large and small, such as Google AppEngine. Because it is an Eclipse project, its open source project is called Eclipse Jetty. It is standards-compliant and open source, as well as commercially usable. It is the main alternative to Tomcat when hosting Java applications. Like Tomcat, you can use Jetty both...
Selecting the Best Authorization for Your API Integrations
Integrating with an API lets you power up your code by knowing what the API knows and doing what the API can do. The catch is that most APIs can’t and shouldn’t let just anybody access your important resources. Just as humans log in to access resources, programs accessing APIs must obtain proper authorization. Your application can use two types of authorization mechanisms when calling Okta APIs from your Okta integration, each with its pros...
Join Us for Developer Day 2023
We’re thrilled to bring back Developer Day in 2023! Developer Day is an event for developers designed by developers. This year we’re happy to announce this event is a free, two-day virtual event, so you can join us wherever you are! The event focuses on using identity to power secure applications, so join us to create a safer world for your application users. Check out more in this teaser video Developer Day 2023 event Authentication...
How Authentication and Authorization Work for SPAs
Adding authentication to public clients such as Single Page Applications (SPA) and JavaScript applications can be a source of confusion. Identity Providers like Okta try to help you via multiple support systems. Still, it can feel like a lot of work. Especially since you’re responsible for way more than authentication alone in the applications you work on! As part of authentication, your client application makes multiple calls to an authorization server, and you get back...
Step-up Authentication in Modern Applications
Step-up authentication in an application is a pattern of allowing access to non-critical resources using basic level of authentication, and requiring additional authentications for critical resources. In this article, we will explore the whys and hows of step-up authentication in modern applications that include Single Page Applications (SPA) and native mobile applications. Federation protocols such as OpenID Connect (OIDC) are getting increasingly popular for modern applications to enhance security by trusting an appropriate identity provider. Here we will focus primarily...
Streamline Your Okta Configuration in Angular Apps
The Okta Angular SDK supports a new and improved configuration method to pass in the required properties for incorporating Okta in your Angular applications. Now, you can add Okta to your Angular application using the forRoot pattern! The forRoot pattern in Angular The forRoot pattern helps ensure services defined in NgModules aren’t duplicated across the application. This is especially noteworthy if you have a module that both provides services and also has component and directive...
A Secure and Themed Sign-in Page
Creating secure applications requires authentication. Delegating all the tedious details of the sign-in process to Okta is the most secure method to authenticate, not to mention speedier for development. So you’ll see us advocating for and using the Okta-hosted sign-in page in our blog posts. But the default sign-in page can look too different from the personality you have in your application. And the login URL redirects to a domain outside your application, which is...
How to Build a Secure React and Fastify API App
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the US federal government, responsible for space exploration and research, with field facilities across the United States. In this tutorial, we’ll set up an app to keep track of what NASA facilities we’ve visited and which ones we still want to check out. Our app will be a monorepo with Okta authentication, using React for the frontend and Fastify for the backend. Fastify...
Secure Secrets with Spring Cloud Config and Vault
In 2013, GitHub released a search feature that allows users to scan code in all public repositories. A day after the release, however, they had to partially shut it down. It was speculated that the shutdown was because the feature allowed any user to search for all kinds of secrets stored in GitHub repositories. Later, in 2014, data on 50,000 Uber drivers was stolen. It seems someone got access to the company’s database using login...
Quick JavaScript Authentication with OktaDev Schematics
Hello, My name is Matt Raible, and I am a developer advocate at Okta. In early 2019, I created OktaDev Schematics to simplify my life when doing Angular demos. But let me step back a bit first. I’ve worked at Okta for over five years; before that, I was an independent consultant for 20 years, mainly doing Java and web development for clients. I’ve learned a lot about OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Okta’s JavaScript SDKs...