Overview

Okta has a robust set of APIs for Governance. The developer site, at first glance, looks like a traditional website, but looking closer, there are unique ways to extract the API endpoint syntax as well as example outputs based on common use cases.

Applies To

• Okta Identity Governance API

Solution

Visit the API documentation for Identity Governance. The following menu should be visible, highlighting each of the Governance related endpoints.  To see an example Workflow that uses the Okta APIs check out the How to Create a Request Type article. 

Become familiar with each of the reference endpoints, but realize how the page comes alive with examples. 

Explore the page by selecting one of the topics on the left menu. For this example, select Request Types to expand all the API endpoints. A new sub-list will be visible.

Now, select Create a request type.

Within each section, notice the various locations that show a caret / greater than symbol. These areas represent sections of the guide that can be expanded or collapsed. In the image below, notice that Request with a greater than sign because Request is collapsed, but the Responses section is expanded.
 

By clicking on that section, it will expand, and the following is displayed. 

The details about creating a request type using the API are displayed. What you may not see as you explore the page are examples of input and output. Whether you see them or not depends on a small set of icons at the top right of the page.

• Minimized View will show the breakdown of the API and its components, but does not show sample data.

• Show Samples View will now display a small view of the API with samples on the right side of the page.  

• Change Layout Maximized View expands the samples in the section with a full-page view of the samples, but moves them to the bottom.

Show Samples View

Change Layout Maximized View. This view moves the dark colored examples seen on the right side of the Samples View to the bottom of the section.  So scroll down……

Now, this is where it starts to get really good! Again, at first glance, this looks pretty typical Web-based document, but there is more!!! Just like above, each section in the dark areas has various caret symbols that represent drop-downs or ways to expand hidden text. For example, next to:

Clicking the caret, the screen expands with more details.

Now, click the caret next to Request samples; this will expand or contract the details under it.

The same applies to other sections on that page that, at first glance, might not stand out. For example:

When selecting the dropdown, all the available examples and the sample code will be displayed.

Now you can start to see the power of the API page.

It gets even better! Each selection will provide example syntax for your API call to meet the selected use case.

Select For access to group, requires manager’s approval in the drop-down.

Below that drop-down, a section will populate with the syntax based on your choice selected. That section also has its own set of controls on the page to Copy the syntax, Expand all or Collapse all. This makes it very easy to cut and paste the example code you need to test the Governance APIs.

Now that you are familiar with the API documentation, explore all the different API calls and consider exciting ways to leverage the Governance solution programmatically! If you want to see an example of how you could use these APIs to create a request type via Okta Workflows, just click here!

Happy Governing!!

Related References

• To view feature requests and upvote product enhancement requests, please visit Okta Ideas.

Looking for Okta Identity Governance help? Visit the Okta Identity Governance Product Hub or schedule Office Hours with the Okta Identity Governance team.